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to hot up

to hot up

1 8.3
To make an engine or machine more powerful for racing
  • phrasal verb
  • /hɑt ʌp/
  • Jargon
: potenciar
  • He decided to hot up his car so it would go faster on the track.

Examples

  • The engine had been hotted up to deliver extra horsepower.

  • Some mechanics specialize in hotting up old motorcycles for racing purposes.

  • The mechanic hot the engine up for better performance.

  • Don't forget to hot up the car before the race!

  • He decided to hot up his car to improve its speed on the track.

  • The mechanic worked quickly to hot up the engine before the race.

  • Some enthusiasts enjoy hotting up their vehicles to enhance performance.

Synonyms

to soup up
vsto hot up
  • Informal
11 6.4

Make a car or motorcycle run faster and work better

often involves replacing or changing parts rather than simple tweaks
to hop up
vsto hot up
  • Informal
2 7.6

To make a car engine more powerful by changing parts

applies to machines broadly, not only vehicle engines
to repower
vsto hot up
  • Specialized
1 6.5

To give a vehicle a new engine or power source

usually changes internal parts rather than swapping the whole power source
to turbocharge
vsto hot up
1 6.2

To make something much faster or more effective

focuses on mechanical part changes for machine efficiency rather than broad intense boosts

Antonyms

213 2.8

To make people and things less strong or effective

How Powerful

to overhaul
39 4.6
to soup up
  • Informal
11 6.4
to hot up
  • Jargon
1 8.3
to upgrade
208 3.5
to tune up
36 3.9
to modify
229 3.2
tweak
35 3.9

Surface Forms

hot up infinitive
hotted up past
hotted up past participle
hotting up present participle
hots up third person singular

Morphology

hot + up

The particle 'up' signals increase and 'hot' conveys higher intensity, so a learner could infer a general sense of making something more powerful or intense. However, the specific mechanical sense of tuning or modifying parts to improve an engine is metaphorical/specialized (and could be confused with 'heat up'), so the meaning is only partly predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Hot up (about engines and machines) comes from car and bike people who changed parts so an engine ran hotter and faster, literally 'hotting up' the machine. So it means 'to make a machine more powerful'.