buoying up

Verb

buoy up (third-person singular simple present buoys up, present participle buoying up, simple past and past participle buoyed up)

1. (figuratively, idiomatic, transitive) To uplift, hearten, inspire, or raise the spirits of.
   • I have supported with very great zeal, and I am told with some degree of success, those opinions, or if his Grace likes another expression better, those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title.1796, Edmund Burke, A letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a noble lord: on the attacks made upon him and his pension, London: J. Owen and F. & C. Rivington
2. (idiomatic, transitive) To keep afloat; to provide with buoyancy.