spice up

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

spice up (third-person singular simple present spices up, present participle spicing up, simple past and past participle spiced up)

1. To enhance the flavor of something by adding spice to it.
   • January 2008, The Eagle-Tribune - Fresh or dried? Spice up your cooking with the right seasonings
2. (transitive, informal) To make more exotic, fun or extravagant.
   • 1984, Rosemarie Tong - Women, Sex, and the Law page 39

     The good sister is there to minister to his spiritual needs, the nurse is there to bind his wounds, and the prostitute is there to spice up his bland sex life.

Translations

enhance the flavour of something using spice

• French: pimenter (fr)
• German: aufpeppen (de)
• Italian: speziare, pimentare
• Polish: doprawiać (pl) impf, doprawić (pl) pf, zaostrzać (pl) impf, zaostrzyć (pl) pf
• Portuguese: condimentar (pt), temperar (pt)
• Russian: приправля́ть (ru) impf (pripravljátʹ), припра́вить (ru) pf (priprávitʹ)
• Spanish: saborizar (es)

make something more exotic, fun or extravagant

• Catalan: animar (ca)
• French: pimenter (fr)
• German: aufpeppen (de)
• Italian: ravvivare (it)
• Latin: faciō dēlectābilior
• Polish: podkręcać impf, podkręcić pf, uatrakcyjniać impf, uatrakcyjnić pf
• Portuguese: apimentar (pt)
• Russian: разнообра́зить (ru) pf (raznoobrázitʹ)
• Spanish: animar (es)
• Vietnamese: thêm mắm thêm muối

Anagrams

• scuppie