souped-up

Meanings

1. Of a racehorse: injected with a substance to make it run faster or to change its temperament.
2. Of an engine, a motor vehicle, etc.: modified for higher performance.
3. Improved.
4. Intoxicated by alcohol or drugs.
5. Excited.

1. simple past and past participle of soup-up

Etymology

Uncertain; the fact that the earlier senses seem to be the horse racing cant and United States Navy slang ones suggests a derivation from soup (“liquid food item”), connoting a horse or a person being filled with a liquid. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a modified clipping of supe(r), with reference to an airplane or automobile engine being supercharged: see, for example, the quotation from 1925. This sense appears to post-date the horse-racing and navy slang senses.