Boost or Boost Up: Which One Is Correct?
When used as a verb meaning 'to increase or improve something so that it will become better or more successful', boost is a transitive verb, and therefore it is followed by a direct object without a preposition:
✅ The victory boosted our confidence.
❌ The victory boosted up our confidence.
✅ The new measures will help boost morale among the staff.
❌ The new measures will help boost up morale among the staff.
✅ The marketing company has helped us boost sales by over 40%.
❌ The marketing company has helped us boost up sales by over 40%.
✅ Recent research has found that doing nothing can boost creativity.
❌ Recent research has found that doing nothing can boost up creativity.
Boost up is used only when it refers to raising someone or something to a higher point:
✅ The father boosted the kid up so that he could get a better view of the horse race.
✅ I boosted my teammate up to get a football that had got stuck up in the tree.
Examples from the Media
As worries grow about the new coronavirus, online searches for ways to bolster the immune system have surged. Are there foods to boost your immune system? Will vitamins help? —The New York Times (2020)
A Sydney university has significantly boosted the share of women in engineering and other male-dominated courses three years after instituting a controversial program to lower entry scores for female school-leavers. —The Sydney Morning Herald (2022)
The discovery of an unexploded shell in the road, buried up to its fins and deadly as a land mine, thrilled McCullin. As he hunted for the best angles to capture the destruction, he ordered the TV camera crew to boost him up onto a crumbling rooftop. —Daily Mail (2018)
But the latest plan is believed to be the first time since the Second World War that non-soldiers have been boosted up the ranks in the regular Army. —The Telegraph (2017)
Real-World Examples of Misuse
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