pick-me-up
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: pick-me-ups
Senses: examples: text: Strong tea is just the pick-me-up that I need right now.
text: He brought a hip flask along, just in case he needs a little pick-me-up later.
text: Adonis calls for a ‘pick-me-up’ before he has strength enough to answer a billet-doux from Venus. Adonis has not the strength to get nobly drunk, but his delicate constitution requires stimulants, and he is always tippling.
ref: 1873, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VI, in Kenelm Chillingly: His Adventures and Opinions […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV, page 253:
text: Make half-a-pint of beef-tea in a tumbler with this extract. Put the tumbler in a refrigerator for an hour, then add a liqueur-glassful of old brandy, with just a dust of cayenne. This is one of the very best pick-me-ups known to the faculty.
ref: 1897, Edward Spencer, Cakes & Ale:
text: "I'm feeling fine today," pursued Gideon, advancing a step and so bringing himself about halfway to the table. "Had a couple of pick-me-ups and a fat breakfast. How are you?"
ref: a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise:
text: In fact I did not feel good. I was suffering from the morning sickness of the steady, heavy drinker. What I needed was a pick-me-up, a bracer.
ref: 1913 August, Jack London, John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC:
text: I have had occasion, I fancy, to speak before now of these pick-me-ups of Jeeves’s and their effect on a fellow who is hanging to life by a thread on the morning after. What they consist of, I couldn’t tell you. He says some kind of sauce, the yolk of a raw egg and a dash of red pepper, but nothing will convince me that the thing doesn’t go much deeper than that.
ref: 1934 October 5, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter V, in Right Ho, Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins […], →OCLC:
text: God, he needed a drink. Just a little pick-me-up to put things in their true perspective— […]
ref: 1977, Stephen King, chapter 5, in The Shining:
coordinate_terms: eye-opener#Noun
glosses: A drink, often an alcoholic one, taken as a stimulant or sometimes as a hangover cure; a restorative, tonic or bracer.
examples: text: A trip into town for lunch with my friend was a nice pick-me-up today.
text: A month or so of winter sport seemed a desirable pick-me-up after the strenuous work and crowning discomfiture of the election.
ref: 1919, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Sheep”, in R[othay] R[eynolds], editor, The Toys of Peace and Other Papers. […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […], →OCLC:
text: Those Austrian desserts we all know and love, sacher torte, linzer torte, apfelstrudel and the like, as well as Bavarian chocolate, peach torte and jailhouse pie, are $2.25 or $2.50 and — with a cup of cafe mocha — a delightful afternoon pick-me-up.
ref: 1986 April, Nancy Webster, Richard Woodworth, Inn Spots & Special Places in New England: A Guide to Where to Go, Stay, Eat and Enjoy in 30 of the Region’s Choicest Areas, West Hartford, Conn.: Wood Pond Press, published May 1988 (3rd printing), →ISBN, page 24:
text: Have to keep reminding myself that I’m also a happily married woman—but it is nice to be noticed as a woman for a change (and to have my fantasy life given such a pick-me-up).
ref: 2009, Tristan de Chalain, Wolf’s Paw, Eloquent Books, →ISBN, page 249:
text: Meeting Marlene had been such a pick-me-up, but at the same time, it was a grim reminder that Allen was not healed.
ref: 2011, Christina Schofield, My Life and Lesser Catastrophes: An Unflinchingly Honest Journey of Faith, Chosen Books, →ISBN, page 107:
text: Glen Medeiros and Bobby Brown are on KDWB right now performing She Ain’t Worth It, and it is such a pick-me-up.
ref: 2019, Cat Ellington, Memoirs in Gogyohka: A Book of Short Poems and Memoirs, Chicago, Ill.: Quill Pen Ink Publishing, →ISBN:
text: Nothing brightens your day like an unexpected check in the mail, letter to the editor, or sign of support from a strong quarter. Such a pick-me-up is welcome, and frequently happens at a time where you most need a boost.
ref: 2019, Dan Gookin, Running For Local Office For Dummies®, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 231:
text: Carrie’s cats have been such a pick-me-up. There’s always one that needs a cuddle and there’s a lot to be said for fur therapy.
ref: 2021, Annette Hannah, The Cosy Little Cupcake Van, Hachette, →ISBN:
text: According to [Kiminobu] Sugaya, music also increases dopamine release in a specific part of the brain, similar to that of illegal drugs. It’s like a cerebral Woodstock, only with musical rather than chemical stimulants (and better hygiene). In other words, it’s time to tune into a happier you. Next to showering, it’s one of the easiest things you can do to give yourself and immediate pick-me-up.
ref: 2023 November 14, Beth Romero, “Be a Weeble”, in Happy AF: Simple Strategies to Get Unstuck, Bounce Back, and Live Your Best Life, Berkeley, Calif.: She Writes Press, →ISBN, chapter 1 (The Art of Letting Go, Bouncing Back, and Being):
glosses: Something that improves one's mood.
Related terms: cocktail
hair of the dog
pep up