pepper-upper
\PEP-er-UHP-er\
noun
1. Informal. something, as a food, beverage, or pill, that provides a quick but temporary period of energy and alertness.
2. Informal. something added to food to relieve blandness.
Quotes
Good for a little pepper-upper, that's all. Fourteen, you got maybe a little flash of color.
-- Ken Goddard, The Alchemist, 1997
Origin
Pepper-upper entered English in the 1930s from the expression pep up, an Americanism from the early 1900s.
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