pepper-upper

[ pep-er-uhp-er ]

/ ˈpɛp ərˈʌp ər /

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something, as a food, beverage, or pill, that provides a quick but temporary period of energy and alertness.

something added to food to relieve blandness.

an experience that increases enthusiasm or zeal, as a pep talk.

QUIZZES

In effect, this quiz will prove whether or not you have the skills to know the difference between “affect” and “effect.”

Question 1 of 7

The rainy weather could not ________ my elated spirits on my graduation day.

1935–40; pep up + -er¹, suffixed pleonastically to both v. and particle

Whisk in the half and half and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Make Carla Hall’s Crispy Shallot Green Bean Casserole|Carla Hall|December 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Rub the loin with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
Make Carla Hall’s Roasted Pork Loin With Cranberries|Carla Hall|December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Kanye refuses to stomach any rejection, no matter how upper crust.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s Balmain Campaign: High Fashion Meets Low Culture|Amy Zimmerman|December 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
If only Sulzberger had managed to keep a zipped upper lip while leaving the dirty work to anonymous underlings.
The Bloodiest Media Coups of 2014|Lloyd Grove|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST

White, upper-middle-class, Ivy-League educated white men, however Great they are, are falling out of power.
A Few Great Men Too Many: Aaron Sorkin Doesn’t Think You Can Handle the Truth|Arthur Chu|December 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Perhaps you do not speak my language,” she said in Urdu, the tongue most frequently heard in Upper India.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
On the upper part of the stem the whorls are very close together, but they are more widely separated at the lower portion.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
It is to be remembered, however, that a few of these bacteria may reach the sputum from the upper air-passages.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
The upper part of the stem is usually unbranched, but whorls of branches occur towards the base.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
One whist table only is at work; General Pepper and three old hands of the same kidney are hard at it.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills