After the meeting the boss pumped up the staff with hollow hype.
Tips
history
In the late 1960s a discredited Chinese folk therapy actually injected fresh rooster blood into patients as a supposed cure-all; it caused fevers and fatalities and was banned. The hyped-up, flushed, agitated state of early recipients became the metaphor: to act like someone riding that artificial high.
usage
Neutral in energy context ('I'm pumped!'), skeptical in workplace context ('the boss is trying to 打鸡血 again'). The causative form 给...打鸡血 = 'to hype (someone) up'.
