pump
part of speech
noun (pump, pumps); verb (pump, pumps, pumped, pumping)
meaning for a pupil
1) A pump is a machine that pushes water, air, fuel or another liquid or gas from one place to another. tree →
2) To pump is to move it with a pump: «pump up a tyre». tree →
3) Your heart is a pump that pushes blood around your body. tree →
4) Pumps are also light flat shoes (UK). tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: water or air moved at a rate (litres per minute); filling or emptying a tank; two pumps working together add their rates. In science: the heart pumps blood; pumps and pressure. In everyday life: a bike pump, a petrol pump, pumping up a football. Phrases: «pump up», «bike pump», «petrol pump», «pumped» (excited).
examples
- A pump moves 30 litres a minute. tree →
- How long to pump 600 litres? tree →
- He pumps up 4 tyres. tree →
- Two pumps work together. tree →
- Use the bike pump to put air in the tyre. tree →
- The heart pumps blood all around the body. tree →
- Firefighters pumped water out of the flooded cellar. tree →
- We were pumped for the big game. tree →
- ‘Rubbish!’ said his wife. ‘Who can pump out the sea?’ tree →
note
Countable: «a pump». Maths: a rate: time = amount ÷ rate; two pumps working together add their rates. Trap: change hours to minutes when the rate is per minute.
In the corpora
- The octopus has three hearts and blue blood: two hearts pump blood through the gills and one through the body.
- Ordinary air has so little carbon dioxide that pumping it in hardly clouds the water.
- A fish-tank pump bubbles air into the water, and some oxygen from the bubbles dissolves for the fish.
- A bee stinger should be scraped out quickly, because it keeps pumping venom for a short while.
- William Harvey showed in 1628 that the heart pumps blood around the body in a circle.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pump» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.