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Definition 2024

souped-up

souped-up

See also: souped up

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

souped-up ‎(comparative more souped-up, superlative most souped-up)

  1. (horse racing, cant) Of horses injected with something to make them run faster or change their temperament. [19th-early 20th c.]
  2. (US Navy, slang) Drunk.
  3. (of an engine, a motor vehicle or another device) Modified for higher performance.
  4. (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, slang) Excited.

Related terms

See also

Etymology

Etymology is unclear, although it is a past participle form from the verb soup.

Automotive and aviation usage is attested at least since 1925 (in Popular Mechanics) — possibly from 1921 — with even early citations linking it to supercharged. Therefore, it is often contended that soup is a clipping of super.

However, this is antedated by usage in horse racing cant that applies the term to horses, and by a US Navy euphemism for drunkenness. The former is attested in Webster New International Dictionary (1909) and the latter in Our Navy (May 1915). Both may be figurative interpretations of soup as a liquid food item, although other origins cannot be discounted.

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