Idiom
prime the pump
Meaning
To engage in deficit spending.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The government will prime the pump to help the economy grow.”
“To encourage consumer spending during the recession, the central bank decided to prime the pump with new financial incentives.”
“By injecting significant capital into infrastructure projects, the administration hoped to prime the pump and stimulate long-term industrial recovery across the struggling region.”
Examples
simple
“The government will prime the pump to help the economy grow.”
contextual
“To encourage consumer spending during the recession, the central bank decided to prime the pump with new financial incentives.”
complex
“By injecting significant capital into infrastructure projects, the administration hoped to prime the pump and stimulate long-term industrial recovery across the struggling region.”
Origin
As an idiomatic term, from the 1930s. From the metaphor of filling (priming) a liquid pump in order to prepare it for operation.
Key words
Related idioms
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