pump1

top: jet pump

bottom: centrifugal pump

pump¹

(pŭmp)

1. A machine or device for raising, compressing, or transferring fluids.

2. Physiology A molecular mechanism for the active transport of ions or molecules across a cell membrane.

3. Physics Electromagnetic radiation used to raise atoms or molecules to a higher energy level.

4. Informal The heart.

5. Informal The place where consumers purchase gasoline. Used with the: gas prices rising at the pump.

v. pumped, pump·ing, pumps

v.tr.

1. To cause to flow by means of a pump or pumplike organ or device: Derricks pumped oil out of the ground. The heart pumps blood throughout the body.

2. To draw, deliver, or pour forth: a writer who pumped out a new novel every year.

3. To propel, eject, or insert: pumped new life into the economy.

4. To cause to move with an up-and-down or back-and-forth motion: a bicyclist pumping the pedals; a piston pumping a shaft.

5. To push or pull (a brake or lever, for instance) rapidly: a driver pumping the brakes.

6. To shoot (bullets, for example) at or into: a gunner pumping rounds at a target.

7. Physics To raise (atoms or molecules) to a higher energy level by exposing them to electromagnetic radiation at a resonant frequency.

8. Physiology To transport (ions or molecules) against a concentration gradient by the expenditure of chemically stored energy.

9. To invest (money) repeatedly or persistently in something.

10. To question closely or persistently: pump a witness for secret information.

11. Informal To promote or publicize vigorously: The company pumped its new product on its website.

v.intr.

1. To operate a pump.

2. To move gas or liquid with a pump or a pumplike organ or device.

3. To move up and down or back and forth in a vigorous manner: My legs were pumping as I ran up the stairs.

4. To flow in spurts: Blood was pumping from the wound.

5. Sports To fake a throw, pass, or shot by moving the arm or arms without releasing the ball.

Phrasal Verb:

pump up

1. To inflate with gas by means of a pump: pump up a tire.

2. Slang To fill with enthusiasm, strength, or energy: The lively debate really pumped us up.

3. Sports To be actively involved in a bodybuilding program: athletes pumping up at the gym.

Idiom:

pump iron Sports

To lift weights.

[Middle English pumpe.]

pump′er n.

pump²

(pŭmp)

A shoe that has a closed back and is cut low around the toes, usually with heels and no fastenings.

[Origin unknown.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pumps

- The shoes are so named for the sound they make.

See also related terms for shoes.

Translations

ballerine [delle scarpe]scarpe da ginnastica

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"I gave him the sounding-rod and lay down again, trying to think of various things--but I thought only of the pumps. When I came on deck they were still at it, and my watch relieved at the pumps.

View in context

We saw the crew of the brig from afar working at the pumps - still pumping on that wreck, which already had settled so far down that the gentle, low swell, over which our boats rose and fell easily without a check to their speed, welling up almost level with her head-rails, plucked at the ends of broken gear swinging desolately under her naked bowsprit.

View in context

One morning upon handling the pumps, according to daily usage, it was observed that she made more water in her hold than common.

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10, before anybody was around, and be ready to man the pumps at the proper time, and make the fur fly.

View in context

In submarine works, the workman, clad in an impervious dress, with his head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by means of forcing pumps and regulators."

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In Sperm-whalemen with any considerable quantity of oil on board, it is a regular semi-weekly duty to conduct a hose into the hold, and drench the casks with sea-water; which afterwards, at varying intervals, is removed by the ship's pumps. Hereby the casks are sought to be kept damply tight; while by the changed character of the withdrawn water, the mariners readily detect any serious leakage in the precious cargo.

View in context

I had worn, when I quitted the ship, a pair of thick pumps, which, from the rough usage they had received in scaling precipices and sliding down gorges, were so dilapidated as to be altogether unfit for use--so, at least, would have thought the generality of people, and so they most certainly were, when considered in the light of shoes.

View in context

In his mind was the decision to inspect the radium pumps, which would take about thirty minutes, and then return to my bed chamber and finish me.

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The hotel, where we rejoined our family, lurked behind a group of lofty elms, and we drank at the town pump before it just for the pleasure of pumping it.

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Since you have done my wife and myself the honour of drinking our healths and happiness, I suppose I must acknowledge the same; though, as you all know me, and know what I am, and what my extraction was, you won't expect a speech from a man who, when he sees a Post, says "that's a Post," and when he sees a Pump, says "that's a Pump," and is not to be got to call a Post a Pump, or a Pump a Post, or either of them a Toothpick.

View in context

On the twelfth day my throat was so painful that, taking the chance of alarming the Martians, I attacked the creaking rain-water pump that stood by the sink, and got a couple of glassfuls of blackened and tainted rain water.

View in context

Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but now it did not strike him so.

View in context

pumps

pump 1

pump 2

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pump¹

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