tank up

tank up idiom
  1. Fill a gas tank with fuel, as in As soon as we tank up the car we can leave. [First half of 1900s]
  2. Drink to the point of intoxication. F. Scott Fitzgerald used this expression in The Great Gatsby (1926): “I think he'd tanked up a good deal at luncheon.” This expression often is put in the passive, meaning “be or become intoxicated,” as in My roommate really got tanked up last night. [Slang; c. 1900]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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