punch up

present singular third person punches up · participle present punching up · participle past punched up · past punched up

1. transitiveTo beat (someone) up by punching, to fist-fight.

   He came back all punched up. He got a few stitches — they really punched him up good.

2. intransitiveslangTo attack, counterattack, or target a group of greater power or status than oneself.

   Her standup act involves a lot of punching up. It's possible to punch down in standup, a little bit here and there, but it's tricky to get right.

   Synonyms: punch upward, punch upwards · Antonyms: punch down

3. transitiveTo make bolder, zestier, or more exciting.

   Near-synonyms: kick up, spice up

   3 more examples

   He punched up his sauce with some habaneros. He figured he needed something to punch it up a little.

   To punch up the flavor even more, we looked to an untraditional ingredient: fish sauce.

   2013, America's Test Kitchen, Comfort Food Makeovers: All Your Favorites Made Lighter

   Yet AI is becoming the invisible infrastructure of personal communications, too – punching up text messages, birthday cards and obituaries, even though we associate such compositions with “from the heart” authenticity.

   2025 June 30, Adrienne Matei, “‘Hey man, I’m so sorry for your loss’: should you use AI to text?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Synonyms: kick up, spice up

4. transitivebroadcastingTo switch (a source) into the main transmission.

   In this illustrated example, camera 2 is punched up on the program buss and is therefore being sent out directly […]

   1982, Thomas D. Burrows, Donald N. Wood, Television Production: Disciplines and Techniques, page 132

   1 more example

   Sound films have to be loaded so that the sound is 5 seconds before the sound drum so a wow does not result when the film is punched up on the air.

   1970, Larry G. Goodwin, Thomas Koehring, Closed-circuit Television Production Techniques, page 80

plural punch ups

1. misspellingMisspelling of punch-up.