See prime the pump on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "As an idiomatic term, from the 1930s. From the metaphor of filling (priming) a liquid pump in order to prepare it for operation.",
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"pos": "verb",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1935, Congressional Record, page 4087:",
"text": "[…] by supplying, through the Federal Treasury, a sufficient flow of finance and currency that will prime the pump and keep it going until it can start its flow from the well or fountain of national resources.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To engage in deficit spending ."
],
"id": "en-prime_the_pump-en-verb-ubVMh32r",
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"(economics) To engage in deficit spending ."
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{
"ref": "2001, Asa E. Lennon, The Forgotten Self: A Book of Reminders, →ISBN, page 112:",
"text": "For example, if you give money to a charity, as a tax reduction or to prime the pump for more money to flow to you, than the actual intent is not making someone else happy, but yourself.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, →ISBN, page 180:",
"text": "Kate primed the pump by telling the story of Dina teaching her to rappel.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Dennis Merritt Jones, The Art of Uncertainty: How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It, →ISBN:",
"text": "A good way to prime the pump of generosity is by starting with the intangibles such as a smile, or a simple courtesy such as opening a door for someone or extending some other random act of kindness.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 -, Poppy Smith, Why Can't He Think More Like Me?, →ISBN:",
"text": "If you're starving for some admiring comments, you might have to prime the pump.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To give something in order to create the conditions where others will give in return."
],
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"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see prime, the, pump."
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"etymology_text": "As an idiomatic term, from the 1930s. From the metaphor of filling (priming) a liquid pump in order to prepare it for operation.",
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{
"ref": "1935, Congressional Record, page 4087:",
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"type": "quote"
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],
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"To engage in deficit spending ."
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{
"ref": "2001, Asa E. Lennon, The Forgotten Self: A Book of Reminders, →ISBN, page 112:",
"text": "For example, if you give money to a charity, as a tax reduction or to prime the pump for more money to flow to you, than the actual intent is not making someone else happy, but yourself.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2002, Dana Stabenow, A Fine and Bitter Snow, →ISBN, page 180:",
"text": "Kate primed the pump by telling the story of Dina teaching her to rappel.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Dennis Merritt Jones, The Art of Uncertainty: How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It, →ISBN:",
"text": "A good way to prime the pump of generosity is by starting with the intangibles such as a smile, or a simple courtesy such as opening a door for someone or extending some other random act of kindness.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 -, Poppy Smith, Why Can't He Think More Like Me?, →ISBN:",
"text": "If you're starving for some admiring comments, you might have to prime the pump.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To give something in order to create the conditions where others will give in return."
]
},
{
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"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see prime, the, pump."
],
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Download raw JSONL data for prime the pump meaning in All languages combined (3.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.