drum up

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to try to find or create support or interest for something

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

thử tìm hoặc tạo sự ủng hộ hoặc quan tâm cho điều gì đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to beat a drum to attract attention
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The company will drum up new business with a marketing campaign

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “drum up” mean?

to try to find or create support or interest for something Literally: to beat a drum to attract attention

Is “drum up” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.