soup
- a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, or vegetables with various added ingredients.
- Slang. a thick fog.
- Slang. added power, especially horsepower.
- Slang. nitroglycerin.
- Photography Slang. developing solution.
- soup up, Slang.
- to improve the capacity for speed or increase the efficiency of (a motor or engine) by increasing the richness of the fuel mixture or the efficiency of the fuel, or by adjusting the engine.
- to give spirit or vivacity to; enliven: a political rally souped up by the appearance of the candidates.
- from soup to nuts,
- from the first through the last course of a meal.
- from beginning to end; to a complete, encompassing degree; leaving nothing out.
- in the soup, Informal. in trouble: He'll be in the soup when the truth comes out.
Origin of soup
Synonyms
See more synonyms for soup on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for soup
Contemporary Examples
By nightfall, I had showered, eaten some soup that a friend brought me, and I slept in my room for 12 solid hours.
They begged for food and were given a 100-pound bag of rice with no soup kind and no one to cook for them.
Bach in the Subways is a soup kitchen for a world starving for classical music.
Andy always thought big, and went for big, simple, slam- bang images— Soup Cans, Dollar Signs, Torsos, Skulls.
Andy always thought big, and went for big, simple, slam- bang images—Soup Cans, Dollar Signs, Torsos, Skulls.
Historical Examples
Why, at that fellow's house he gives you that claret wine as warm as soup.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
(b) In what ways should soup accompaniments be a contrast to the soup?
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
(a) Explain in full the meaning of stock as applied to soup.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
You must have your soup, and (I do not mean to be pathetic) what is soup without salt?
They may be placed in the soup tureen or in each person's soup.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
soup
- a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, vegetables, etc, usually served hot at the beginning of a meal
- informal a photographic developer
- informal anything resembling soup in appearance or consistency, esp thick fogSee also peasouper
- a slang name for nitroglycerine
- in the soup informal in trouble or difficulties
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for soup
n.
"liquid food," 1650s, from French soupe "soup, broth" (13c.), from Late Latin suppa "bread soaked in broth," from a Germanic source (cf. Middle Dutch sop "sop, broth"), from Proto-Germanic *sup-, from PIE *sub-, from root *seue- (2) "to take liquid" (see sup (v.2)).
Primordial soup is from a concept first expressed 1929 by J.B.S. Haldane. Soup to nuts "everything" is from 1910. Soup-kitchen, "public establishment supported by voluntary contributions, for preparing and serving soup to the poor at no cost" is attested from 1839. In Ireland, souper meant "Protestant clergyman seeking to make proselytes by dispensing soup in charity" (1854).
v.
"increase the horsepower of an engine," 1921, probably from soup (n.) in slang sense of "narcotic injected into horses to make them run faster" (1911), influenced by supercharge (v.).
Idioms and Phrases with soup
soup
In addition to the idiom beginning with soup
- soup up
also see:
- duck soup
- from soup to nuts
- in the soup
- thick as thieves (pea soup)