soup up

present singular third person soups up · participle present souping up · participle past souped up · past souped up · alternative soup-up · alternative supe up

1. informaltransitiveTo modify the engine of (a motor vehicle) to give a higher performance than the specifications.

   Imagine souping up a Mini with a Cosworth engine: the car would fly.

   2009 October 19, Paul Rees, “Flying backs become walking wounded as blitz defence has its impact”, in The Guardian

2. broadlyfigurativelytransitiveTo embellish with many additions.

   They are dickering over a tax cut small enough, in a bill "souped" up with gadgets, to escape or override a veto.

   1948, Harley L. Lutz, "Taxes and Jobs," Institute of Business and Economic Problems: A Series of Lectures, page 25