1
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Phrase(s): tank up (on something) [and] tank up with something
1. Lit. to fill one’s fuel tank with something. • I need to tank up on premium gas to stop this engine knock. • It’s time to stop and tank up. • We need to tank up with gas. 2. Sl. to drink some kind of alcoholic beverage. • Toby spent the evening tanking up on bourbon. • Jerry tanked up with gin and went to sleep.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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general::
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]
American Heritage Idioms