souped

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of soup.

   The mechanic souped up the sedan until it could top a hundred miles an hour.

   By the time the parts arrived, he had souped up half the cars in the garage.

   Note

   A regular -ed form doing double duty: it serves as the past (they souped the film) and as the participle after have or be (the film was souped). That participle shape is the one the slang adjectives share. Among the verb's uses, developing film in a chemical bath is the live one. Feeding someone soup is uncommon, and the meanings "sweep" and preaching while feeding the poor are obsolete.

2. 2
   adjective

   In trouble or in difficulty, often after something has gone badly wrong.

   Like a fly caught in a web, tangled up with no clear escape.

   By the time the auditors arrived, the whole department was thoroughly souped.

   She knew she was souped the moment the teacher asked for her missing homework.

   Similardoomed, busted

   Note

   The bare adjective behind the idiom in the soup: to be souped is to be where that phrase puts you. James Joyce uses it in Ulysses (1922) for a near miss, "or I was souped," which shows its natural place after be, as a verdict on one's situation rather than a word placed before a noun. Readers who know only the idiom will usually recognize it through that link.

3. 3
   adjectiveslang

   Drunk or intoxicated from alcohol.

   Three rounds in, the whole table was loudly souped.

   He showed up souped to the dinner and embarrassed everyone with his toast.

   Similardrunk, plastered, smashed, hammered, wasted

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Slang that comes with its own intensifiers: souped to the gills, souped to the eyeballs, as if the drinker were filled to the brim. Cate Kennedy's Dark Roots (2018) extends the phrase to a drug, "souped to the eyeballs on morphine," which shows how easily the word slides toward the narcotic meaning. The preposition on then names the substance. It belongs in casual talk, not in formal writing.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Under the influence of narcotic drugs.

   They found him souped on the floor, a needle still beside him.

   Too souped on heroin to register the sirens, he never moved from the doorway.

   Similarhigh, stoned, wasted, doped

   Oppositesober, clean

   Note

   Context does all the work here, since the word itself does not separate drugs from the drunk meaning. Both senses share one form and one slang register. That casual register can sound flippant in talk about addiction or overdose, so in serious or clinical writing a plain word such as intoxicated or impaired is the safer choice.

5. 5
   adjectivedialectalNew England

   Excited; keyed up with eager energy.

   Like a runner at the starting line, buzzing with anticipation.

   The crowd was souped long before the headliner took the stage.

   He came back from the rally totally souped about the campaign.

   Similarexcited, pumped, psyched, hyped, stoked

   Oppositebored, apathetic

   Note

   Here the slang is regional: New England speech uses the word for excitement, while elsewhere listeners are more likely to hear it as drunk or in trouble. Because the readings sit so far apart, it works best among people who share the usage. For readers outside the region, excited, keyed up or fired up carries the meaning without the risk of being taken the wrong way.

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