to mount a campaign
- phrasal verb
- The organization decided to mount a campaign to raise awareness about climate change.
- Republicans mount a campaign
Examples
-
The following year, two Jesuit priests involved with the LACs were expelled, as the government mounted a campaign of repression against this peasant movement.
Academic text (1990) -
He mounted a campaign against fraud and abuse, sending government auditors into hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies to scrutinize their records.
Fiction book (2000) -
Citizens mounted a campaign that successfully bought it back.
Blog text (34) -
Humphrey quickly mounted a campaign of his own.
Academic text (1992) -
We're about to mount a campaign on Indiegogo for PizzaSpotz.
Blog text (20) -
It has both the resources and the incentives to mount a campaign for internationalism.
Academic text (2000) -
A member of the Kayan tribe of Sarawak, he first tried to stop the devastation of his people's forests by mounting a campaign to send letters and petitions to various government departments.
Academic text (1990) -
After losing their jobs, the group turned to the same thing that got them fired—their willingness to share online—in the hopes of mounting a campaign of public support to regain their positions.
Blog text (7) -
In 1988, Public Citizen and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) mounted a campaign to ban Alar, a chemical sprayed on apples to lengthen hang time.
Blog text (21) -
In response to the growing threat of oil development on indigenous lands, CONFENIAE mounted a campaign to defend the territory of the Huaorani people, the indigenous group least integrated into Ecuadorian national society (CONFENIAE 1988).
Academic text (2003)
Synonyms
To work in a planned way to win support or votes
To organize and start an event or campaign
To try to make political or social change
To campaign strongly for a cause over a long time
To begin a determined public campaign to change something
Antonyms
How Ambitious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'mount' (to organize/begin) combined with 'campaign' (a planned set of activities) yields the MWE meaning directly; the determiner 'a' is semantically light. This is a common compositional pattern (cf. ‘lead/mount/launch a campaign’ in other languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase mount a campaign may come from old soldiers preparing for action: to mount meant to get on a horse or to get ready, and a campaign was a long set of planned actions. So, to mount a campaign now means 'to organize and begin a series of planned activities'.