"trump up" = inflate

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Apr 13 15:51:19 UTC 2008


At 8:06 AM -0700 4/13/08, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>A Fox News correspondent reports that even as the "Obama camp" tries
>to minimize his recent comment about bitterness in Pennsylvania, the
>"Clinton camp is trying to trump up the statement."
>
>   See, "trump" must be from "trumpet," right?  So, like, "trump up"
>must mean to inflate something, like when you blow into a trumpet?
>Or maybe to make a noise about something, like when you blow into a
>trumpet.
>
with influence from "ramp up"?

LH

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