to drum up
- phrasal verb
- /drʌm ʌp/
- With all the Bigfoot mania around here, he'll really help me drum up business.
- drum up support
- drum up business
- drum up interest
I had never, you know, had to like, go find deals and drum up business on a daily basis.
- I had never, you know, had to like, go find deals and drum up business on a daily basis.
- Were they there drumming up trade for Britain or were they there to help Andrew?
- You have to think this in context because the reporter wants to create the conflict, so she's trying to drum up the conflict.
- So they do play up their, you know, their humiliation at Western powers hands because they want to try to drum up patriotism.
- There's not a set path and it's often self generated in terms of you have to drum up that sort of noise for yourself.
- The fear mongering's stated intention was to drum up support for a federal bailout of SVB depositors, many of whom were the catastrophists themselves.
Examples
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Then you'll go round to universities, explain our services, drum up business for us.
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He went door-to-door to drum up support for the new community center.
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Now spread out and go drum up some business.
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You go out there and drum up some business.
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Maybe I can drum up some new clients.
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I spent the first month trying to drum up business from existing clients.
Blog text (18) -
Send out a press release to drum up some interest in something happening with your company.
Blog text (28) -
I'm not trying to drum up business or anything.
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So Southwest is trying to drum up some business, stealing away customers from its rivals.
Blog text (7) -
He's on a tour in Iowa right now to drum up support.
Synonyms
To get better after an illness or problem
To promote something with exaggerated, flashy advertising to get attention
To say that something is better or more important than it really is
Make people feel excited or upset and attract attention
To make someone feel very excited about something
To speak or act strongly to support a cause
To make people excited and ready to help a cause
Speak strongly in public to support a person, idea, or cause
To promote something loudly and with exaggeration to get attention
Make people more interested and eager about something
Antonyms
How Much Support
Surface Forms
Morphology
The particle 'up' signals increase and 'drum' evokes attracting attention or calling people, so a learner who knows both words can partially infer a sense of raising or gathering something. However, extending this to specifically 'generate interest/support/business by active persuasion' is a metaphorical shift that is not fully predictable without exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Drum up comes from the picture of someone beating a drum to call people up or together so they listen. So to drum up something means to try to get 'interest' or 'support'.