to fruit up

7.5

To add fruit to food to make it taste or look better

phrasal verb

Informal

: añadir fruta

She always fruits up her desserts with fresh berries.

Examples

She decided to fruit up her breakfast with bananas.
We should fruit up the dessert with kiwi slices.
Let's fruit up this salad with some berries.
You should fruit up that salad!
Let's fruit up this salad with some berries to make it more colorful.
She decided to fruit up her breakfast with sliced bananas for added sweetness.
We should fruit up the dessert with kiwi slices to enhance its flavor.

Synonyms

to garnish with

vsto fruit up

9 3.5

To add small pieces of food on top of a dish to make it look nicer

focuses on using sweet produce pieces to enhance taste and look

to spice up

vsto fruit up

2 2.8

To add spices or herbs to food to make it taste better

uses sweet produce additions rather than dried herbs or spices

to elevate a dish

vsto fruit up

5.0

To make food taste or look better by adding a small extra ingredient

aims specifically at adding sweet produce elements to change flavor or appearance

How Garnished

to fruit up

Informal

7.5

to garnish

15 3.5

to top with

43 2.8

Surface Forms

fruit up infinitive

fruited up past

fruited up past participle

fruiting up present participle

fruits up third person singular

Morphology

fruit + up

The meaning 'to add fruit to something' is directly derivable from combining the noun 'fruit' (the ingredient) with the particle 'up' that conveys adding or increasing (as in productive patterns like 'beef up' or 'jazz up'). This noun-to-verb conversion plus the common verbal particle 'up' is a regular, compositional English pattern that a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely infer.

Etymology

Fruit up comes from a simple kitchen image: putting bright fruit on top of a plain dish, with up showing that you are making it better. That's why fruit up means to add fruit to 'improve' the taste or the look.