Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- 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.
Verb Phrases
- 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.
noun
- 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
“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).
“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.).
Also, from A to Z or start to finish or stem to stern. From beginning to end, throughout, as in We went through the whole agenda, from soup to nuts, or She had to learn a whole new system from A to Z, or It rained from start to finish, or We did over the whole house from stem to stern. The first expression, with its analogy to the first and last courses of a meal, appeared in slightly different forms (such as from potage to cheese) from the 1500s on; the precise wording here dates only from the mid-1900s. The second expression alludes to the first and last letters of the Roman alphabet; see also alpha and omega. The third comes from racing and alludes to the entire course of the race; it dates from the mid-1800s. The last variant is nautical, alluding to the front or stem, and rear or stern, of a vessel.
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)