straight up
9
7.6
- idiom
- /streɪt ʌp/
- Jargon
:
sin hielo
- He prefers his whiskey straight up, with no ice.
- vodka straight up
- martini straight up
- tequila straight up
Examples
-
Can l get a JD straight up, please?
-
Shot of tequila, straight up.
-
Do you want it straight up?
-
- Oh a scotch, straight up.
-
ED Imperial whiskey, straight up.
Fiction book (1994) -
Vodka straight up is fine, sugar babe!
Fiction book (2002) -
Can I have a Stolli straight up, please.
-
Extra dry, straight up, three olives.
-
I'll have an Absolut straight up.
-
Johnnie Walker Black, straight up.
Synonyms
15
6.3
A drink with alcohol served without ice or mixers
14
4.7
Served without ice or mixer
1
4.5
An alcoholic drink like gin with no water or other drinks
How Diluted
3
2.6
- US
5
5.0
- US
1
3.9
- Jargon
9
7.6
15
6.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
straight + up
Both constituents give partial cues: 'straight' can mean unadulterated/not mixed and 'up' can signal a serving condition (often without ice), so a learner might guess it refers to how a drink is served. However, the precise bartending instruction (shaken or stirred with ice but served without ice) is a specialised collocational meaning that is not fully predictable from the words alone, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Straight up may come from bartenders who first cooled a drink with ice and then poured it into a glass so it was straight (plain) and up (in the glass with no ice). That's why it means 'served without ice' today.