Meaning & use
pump prime
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Meanings
verbtransitivebusinessfinance
to spend money, especially public money, in order to encourage economic activity and growth
Grammar: Takes an object: pump-prime the economy. Often used in the passive: the economy was pump-primed.
Patterns
- pump-prime the economy
- pump-prime demand
- be pump-primed by something
The government tried to pump-prime the economy with new infrastructure projects.
Lower taxes were used to pump-prime consumer spending.
The region was pump-primed by investment in roads and schools.
noununcountablebusinessfinance
money or action used to start economic activity, especially government spending
Grammar: Uncountable: pump-priming. Often used before another noun: pump-priming measures.
Patterns
- pump-priming by the government
- a pump-priming measure
The budget included pump-priming to boost small businesses.
Critics said the pump-priming was too slow to help.
Pump-priming alone cannot fix long-term unemployment.
Word forms
| third person singular | pump-primes |
|---|---|
| past tense | pump-primed |
| past participle | pump-primed |
| -ing form | pump-priming |
Common combinations
- pump-prime the economy
- The president promised to pump-prime the economy after the recession.
- pump-priming measures
- The government announced pump-priming measures to create jobs.
- pump-priming spending
- Pump-priming spending can increase the national debt.
- pump-prime demand
- Tax cuts were meant to pump-prime demand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stimulate
- A more general verb meaning to encourage activity; 'pump-prime' is specifically about using money to start economic growth.
- kick-start
- Informal and means to start something quickly; 'pump-prime' is more technical and economic.
Word family
- pump-priming noun
- The act or process of using money to encourage economic activity.
Commonly confused: pump prime or prime the pump?
pump prime vs prime the pump
This is the original idiom meaning to do something that encourages growth; 'pump-prime' is the verb form based on it.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pump-prime' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The verb 'pump-prime' takes a direct object: pump-prime the economy. Option 1 has the object after the prepositional phrase, which is unnatural; option 2 adds an extra pronoun; option 3 uses the -ing form after 'to' incorrectly.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pump prime”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.