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.
"I fill my tank up in September every year," he said.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
“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
He was last seen in Cannes riding a tank up the street to promote 2014’s The Expendables 3.
From The Guardian ● May 18, 2019
The visibility wasn't very good, so I propped the extra tank up in the seat and put my headpiece and mask on it, hoping any watchers would think there were two of us.
From The Flying Stingaree by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
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.
