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Glite Dictionary
😊 To cheer up 🛶 To keep afloat
to buoy up

to buoy up

5.0
Keep someone or something floating on water
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈbɔɪ ʌp/
translation icon : flotar
  • Waves buoyed up the debris for several days before it washed ashore.

Examples

  • The life vest buoyed up the child in the water.

  • Special foam inserts buoy up the boat when it's heavily loaded.

  • The lifeguard buoyed the swimmer up during the rescue.

  • Can you buoy up this raft?

  • The life jacket will buoy up the swimmer in rough waters.

  • The vivid colors in the painting seem to buoy up the viewer's mood.

  • The logs were used to buoy up the boat as it floated down the river.

Synonyms

to float
vsto buoy up
645 1.0

To stay or move on water without sinking, sometimes in the air

focuses on keeping something afloat in liquid to prevent sinking
to buoy
vsto buoy up
15 5.3

To keep someone or something floating and give them hope

is mainly about physical support to stop sinking on a liquid surface

Antonyms

to sink
258 1.0

To go down below the surface of water and become underwater

How Buoyant

to float
645 1.0
to buoy up
5.0
to stay afloat
  • Informal
16 4.1
to support
240 1.0

Surface Forms

buoy up infinitive
buoyed up past
buoyed up past participle
buoying up present participle
buoys up third person singular

Morphology

buoy + up

The meaning 'to keep afloat; to support' is directly derivable from combining 'buoy' (to keep afloat, uplift, or encourage) with the particle 'up' (indicating upward movement or strengthening), so the composite sense is compositional. This motion/causative + particle pattern is common and predictable, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Buoy up comes from the real buoys and floats that keep boats or people on the water. So to 'buoy up' something means to keep it 'afloat' and stop it from sinking.