tank up
Britishverb
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to fill the tank of (a vehicle) with petrol
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slang to imbibe or cause to imbibe a large quantity of alcoholic drink
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Fill a gas tank with fuel, as in As soon as we tank up the car we can leave . [First half of 1900s]
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Drink to the point of intoxication. F. Scott Fitzgerald used this expression in The Great Gatsby (1926): “I think he'd tanked up a good deal at luncheon.” This expression often is put in the passive, meaning “be or become intoxicated,” as in My roommate really got tanked up last night . [ Slang ; c. 1900]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Some people stop to tank up on fuel.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2023
Like Larry, most of the people who stopped by the station didn’t fill their tank up all the way, instead putting $10 on pump 5, $20 on pump 3 or $13 on pump 1.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2022
Gas cars can tank up in seconds and return to the track for another couple of hours.
From New York Times ● Sep. 3, 2020
That's how I feel - the support I get from my fans and my friends is what fills my tank up.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2014
Here, as Craney admitted, he hadn't enough to occupy him three weeks out of the four, and, so long as he could tend to that much, he was welcome to "tank up" when he pleased.
From Tonio, Son of the Sierras A Story of the Apache War by Charles J. Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
