pick-me-up meaning (informal): definition, quotations

pick-me-up

noun

Informal A drink, often an alcoholic one, taken as a stimulant or sometimes as a hangover cure; a restorative, tonic or bracer.

4 more examples

Adonis calls for a ‘pick-me-up’ before he has strength enough to answer a billet-doux from Venus. Adonis has not the strength to get nobly drunk, but his delicate constitution requires stimulants, and he is always tippling.1873, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VI, in Kenelm Chillingly: His Adventures and Opinions […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, page 253:
Make half-a-pint of beef-tea in a tumbler with this extract. Put the tumbler in a refrigerator for an hour, then add a liqueur-glassful of old brandy, with just a dust of cayenne. This is one of the very best pick-me-ups known to the faculty.1897, Edward Spencer, Cakes & Ale:
"I'm feeling fine today," pursued Gideon, advancing a step and so bringing himself about halfway to the table. "Had a couple of pick-me-ups and a fat breakfast. How are you?"a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise:
In fact I did not feel good. I was suffering from the morning sickness of the steady, heavy drinker. What I needed was a pick-me-up, a bracer.1913 August, Jack London, John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC:

Something that improves one's mood.

A trip into town for lunch with my friend was a nice pick-me-up today.
A month or so of winter sport seemed a desirable pick-me-up after the strenuous work and crowning discomfiture of the election.1919, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Sheep”, in R[othay] R[eynolds], editor, The Toys of Peace and Other Papers. […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […], →OCLC:

4 more examples

Those Austrian desserts we all know and love, sacher torte, linzer torte, apfelstrudel and the like, as well as Bavarian chocolate, peach torte and jailhouse pie, are $2.25 or $2.50 and — with a cup of cafe mocha — a delightful afternoon pick-me-up.1986 April, Nancy Webster, Richard Woodworth, Inn Spots & Special Places in New England: A Guide to Where to Go, Stay, Eat and Enjoy in 30 of the Region’s Choicest Areas, West Hartford, Conn.: Wood Pond Press, published May 1988 (3rd printing), →ISBN, page 24:
Have to keep reminding myself that I’m also a happily married woman—but it is nice to be noticed as a woman for a change (and to have my fantasy life given such a pick-me-up).2009, Tristan de Chalain, Wolf’s Paw, Eloquent Books, →ISBN, page 249:
Meeting Marlene had been such a pick-me-up, but at the same time, it was a grim reminder that Allen was not healed.2011, Christina Schofield, My Life and Lesser Catastrophes: An Unflinchingly Honest Journey of Faith, Chosen Books, →ISBN, page 107:
Glen Medeiros and Bobby Brown are on KDWB right now performing She Ain’t Worth It, and it is such a pick-me-up.2019, Cat Ellington, Memoirs in Gogyohka: A Book of Short Poems and Memoirs, Chicago, Ill.: Quill Pen Ink Publishing, →ISBN: