pick-me-up

plural pick-me-ups

1. informalA drink, often an alcoholic one, taken as a stimulant or sometimes as a hangover cure; a restorative, tonic or bracer.First known use 19th c.

   Strong tea is just the pick-me-up that I need right now.

   5 more examples

   He brought a hip flask along, just in case he needs a little pick-me-up later.

   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

2. Something that improves one's mood.

   A trip into town for lunch with my friend was a nice pick-me-up today.

   5 more examples

   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

   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

   We started right in on an early morning pick-me-up of borshch with pampushki, the bread rolls with garlic sauce they serve with borshch in Kiev.

   2008 March 15, James Meek, “The story of borshch”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Mar 2014

   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