on steroids
5
7.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
potenciado
- Her latest book is a thriller on steroids, filled with unexpected twists and heart-pounding action.
- pumped up on steroids
And it was like Gone Girl on steroids.
- And it was like Gone Girl on steroids.
- I mean it is trickle down incompetence on steroids.
- Battle Dome, which was American Gladiators on steroids, OK?
- It was like a dentist drilling on steroids.
- Well, this is that rule, but on steroids.
- It's government becoming a venture capitalist on steroids.
- But the, the woke mob is, is moral purity on steroids.
- I was like, whoa, this is like logistics, but like on steroids.
- It was like American Gladiators on steroids.
- And now the Internet was like that on steroids.
- And really they're, they're sort of like statistics on steroids.
- It was just a total win for everyone and AI can do that on steroids.
Examples
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Now it's like you've got to paddle on steroids because the pace of change is so enormous that you've got to paddle even faster just to make small movements.
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What we're witnessing is Obamamania on steroids among the mainstream media.
Blog text (25) -
If and when these problems can be solved, the result could be academic research on steroids.
Blog text (14) -
But it seems like this paranoia is like on steroids in America.
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"Race to the Top is No Child Left Behind on steroids," Ravitch said.
Blog text (13) -
Now we're putting that system on steroids and thinking it won't end in disaster.
Blog text (9) -
This is the Twitter Files on steroids, isn't it?
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When it comes to foreign policy, President Romney would be President George W. Bush on steroids.
Blog text (12) -
It's capitalism on steroids.
Academic text (2004) -
Live Mesh is a PC-to-PC-to-cloud folder sync service, like Dropbox on steroids.
Blog text (24)
Synonyms
1
5.7
Extremely energetic and powerful, making things much more effective
Very good at making something work much better than usual
Much stronger than normal
Antonyms
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
on + steroids
The phrase combines 'on' (indicating being affected by or having) with 'steroids' (substances known for greatly enhancing performance), so the meaning 'much more powerful/intense' is a metaphorical extension of the literal parts. However, this relies on cultural/biomedical knowledge about steroids and an idiomatic mapping ("X on steroids" = an amplified version), so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the sense.
Etymology
The phrase on steroids comes from the image of athletes taking steroids to get much bigger and stronger. So when we say something is on steroids, we mean it is 'much more powerful, intense, or extreme' than normal.