soup up

verb

souped up; souping up; soups up

transitive verb

1
: to increase the power, efficiency, or performance of
soup up an engine
Some cars souped up with customized engines and suspensions may be uninsurable through standard policies.Consumer Reports
… the giant particle accelerator at CERN, near Geneva, had been souped up until it could achieve the energy required to test the contention of the electroweak theory that neutral intermediate vector bosons actually exist.Timothy Ferris
2
: to heighten the impact of : to make more exciting or colorful
The ads you've seen are for old cold remedies that have been souped up and given a new marketing spin.Joe and Teresa Graedon
But she's doing what Kirstein accuses the dilettantes of doing—souping up her performance with ballet stylization.Arlene Croce

Examples of soup up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Not that the track is the Sport Classic's natural home—this souped up 911 trades ultimate performance and ground-hugging downforce for daily driver usability and a performance envelope that's a little more accessible to those of us who aren't employed as Porsche factory racing drivers. Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 29 Dec. 2023 Some may soup up an extravagant sports car or buy a 10-bedroom mansion in the hills. India Espy-Jones, Essence, 7 Dec. 2023 The music has similarly been stripped down and souped up. Brian Seibert, New York Times, 12 July 2023 Customer service bots are getting souped up with generative A.I., too. David Meyer, Fortune, 7 Mar. 2023 Google and Microsoft are following suit and souping up their search engines. Joe McKendrick, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2023 But not all CEOs have given up so quickly, setting hybrid or fully-in person mandates this past fall and trying to soup up their offices with perks and ‘quiet spaces’ to entice workers back to their desks. Chloe Berger, Fortune, 2 Dec. 2022 From hot rods and desert speed racers to the import-tuning scene at the turn of the century, being able to soup up one's ride has been a core aspect of car enthusiasm. Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 14 Oct. 2022 Staluppi, born in Brooklyn, was an auto mechanic who had no experience with the sea until his boss asked him to soup up a boat. Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 18 July 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'soup up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

soup (drug injected into a racehorse to improve its performance)

First Known Use

1924, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of soup up was in 1924

Dictionary Entries Near soup up

Cite this Entry

“Soup up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soup%20up. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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