soup up
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Verb
[edit]soup up (third-person singular simple present soups up, present participle souping up, simple past and past participle souped up)
- (informal, transitive) To modify the engine of (a motor vehicle) to give a higher performance than the specifications.
- 2009 October 19, Paul Rees, “Flying backs become walking wounded as blitz defence has its impact”, in The Guardian:
- Imagine souping up a Mini with a Cosworth engine: the car would fly.
- (by extension) To embellish with many additions.
- 1948, Harley L. Lutz, "Taxes and Jobs," Institute of Business and Economic Problems: A Series of Lectures, page 25:
- They are dickering over a tax cut small enough, in a bill "souped" up with gadgets, to escape or override a veto.