buoy up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

buoy up (third-person singular simple present buoys up, present participle buoying up, simple past and past participle buoyed up)

1. (idiomatic, transitive, figurative) To uplift, hearten, inspire, or raise the spirits of.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, A letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a noble lord: on the attacks made upon him and his pension‎^[1], London: J. Owen and F. & C. Rivington:

     I have supported with very great zeal, and I am told with some degree of success, those opinions, or if his Grace likes another expression better, those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title.

   • 2020 December 9, Drachinifel, 7:05 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Cape Esperance (IJN 1 : 2 USN)‎^[2], archived from the original on 4 December 2022:

     With this training complete, and the crews of his cruisers and destroyers somewhat buoyed up by the experience, he then headed into the seas around Guadalcanal on the 9th […]

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To keep afloat; to provide with buoyancy.

Translations

uplift

• Bulgarian: ободрявам (bg) (obodrjavam), обнадеждавам (bg) (obnadeždavam)
• French: encourager (fr)
• German: flott halten; Auftrieb geben; aufrechterhalten; beleben

keep afloat

• Maori: whakatere