souped-up
adjUK /ˈsuːpt ʌp/ · US /ˈsupt ʌp/
Etymology Uncertain; the fact that the earlier senses seem to be the horse racing cant and United States Navy slang ones suggests a derivation from soup (“liquid food item”), connoting a horse or a person being filled with a liquid. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a modified clipping of supe(r), with reference to an airplane or automobile engine being supercharged: see, for example, the quotation from 1925. This sense appears to post-date the horse-racing and navy slang senses.
1
Hobbies, Horse racing, Horseracing, Horses, Lifestyle, Pets, Racing, Sports Of a racehorse: injected with a substance to make it run faster or to change its temperament.
- $600.00 BUYS T. M. Scout with "Souped up" OX5 motor. Snappiest commercial single seater built. H. W. Mackie, Air Service, Houston, Texas.1925 September, “Classified Advertisements”, in H[enry] H[aven] Windsor, editor, Popular Mechanics Magazine, volume 44, number 3, Chicago, Ill.: Popular Mechanics Co., →OCLC, page 33, column 3:
- [W]ill it be possible to mount a larger engine for use in La Paz? I doubt very much if the standard 165 would get off the ground up here with a student. I wish you would take that up with the factory and see if they can put out a job with a suped-up seven-cylinder job. The R-540 I think it is.1933 September 13, “[Appendix: Exhibits] Exhibit No. 343: CWW #35 [Letter to C. W. Webster, Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation]”, in Munitions Industry: Hearings before the Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry, United States Senate, Seventy-third Congress […], part 1 (September 4, 5 and 6, 1934: Electric Boat Co.), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, published 1934, →OCLC, page 925:
4 more examples
- AUTOMOBILES: SAFETY; Teen-Agers With ‘Souped Up’ Vehicles Urged to Be Careful on Labor Day1948 August 29, Bert Pierce, “Automobiles: safety; Teen-agers with ‘souped up’ vehicles urged to be careful on Labor Day”, in The New York Times, headline:
- TALKING SHOP with young hot-rodder friends, Mrs. Bush keeps grandson waiting in his souped-up car […] at Eddie's Market, social center of South Brooksville, Maine (pop. 150), where she is vacationing with daughter.1952 September 8, Milton Lehman, “The First Woman Driver: A.A.A. Honors Motorist Who Got License in 1900, Never Had a Dent”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 33, number 10, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, image caption, page 92:
- The suspicion grows that this souped-up erudition disguises a paucity of thought, which of all things seems to be based on a lack of historical good sense, or, if you will, of good historical sense.1989, Irving Louis Horowitz, “Erich Kahler: History and Society in Retrospect”, in Persuasions and Prejudices: An Informal Compendium of Modern Social Science 1953–1988, New Brunswick, N.J.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 62:
- In the drinking that follows that afternoon it is a wonder that no one dies of alcohol poisoning. The final kegs die at around 1800 hours or so, and that is when Coolidge's wife Melanie starts making her souped-up Atomic Kamikazes.2000, J. S. Kindrick, The Spirit Horses, San Jose, Calif.; Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 118:
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Broadly Improved.
- As with the previous Omicron subvariants, it seems likely that the US will follow those regions once again, with or without the new souped-up vaccines.2022 July 20, “Opinion: Covid-19 continues to surprise us”, in CNN:
- Since its launch in November last year, ChatGPT has become an extraordinary hit. Essentially a souped-up chatbot, the AI program can churn out answers to the biggest and smallest questions in life, and draw up college essays, fictional stories, haikus, and even job application letters.2023 January 13, Ian Sample, “ChatGPT: what can the extraordinary artificial intelligence chatbot do?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- If you have had any experience at all with the effect that it has upon these people when they are in situations of violence, you can understand that you cannot send these persons who are souped up on drugs to perform a delicate mission […]1968, Melvin M. Belli, Trial and Tort Trends: Belli Seminar, page 253:
5
New England, US, Slang Excited.
- Related terms
- soup up