Word.ws English Dictionary

Irish up

Irish up verb: to add alcohol to a drink that doesn't normally have it.

Verb

Irish up (third-person singular simple present Irishes up, present participle Irishing up, simple past and past participle Irished up)

  1. (informal, transitive) To add alcohol to a drink that doesn't normally have it.
    • You want me to Irish up that punch bowl for ya? No? Ha, OK — your loss!
    • Ginger: Think you could Irish up this coffee for me?
      Flanders: Whoops, watch the swears, Honey Bear. We don't use the "I" word in this house.2002, Joel H. Cohen, “Brawl in the Family” (16:47 from the start), in The Simpsons, season 13, episode 7, spoken by Ginger
    Synonyms:
    spike
  2. (intransitive) To get drunk.
    Antonyms:
    sober up

Irish up meaning in Bengali

Irish up in Bengali

মাতাল হওয়া

Synonyms of Irish up

Antonyms

Forms of Irish up

third-person singular presentIrishes up
present participleIrishing up
past participleIrished up
pastIrished up

Origin of Irish up

From a stereotype of Irish people as often having a drinking problem; see Wikipedia at Anti-Irish sentiment. The verb's popularization was increased by an episode of The Simpsons in 2002.

Questions about Irish up

What does Irish up mean?
Irish up means to add alcohol to a drink that doesn't normally have it.
What is Irish up in Bengali?
Irish up in Bengali is মাতাল হওয়া. See Irish up meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is Irish up?
Irish up is a verb.
What is the past tense of Irish up?
The past tense of Irish up is Irished up.

Words near Irish up in the dictionary

  1. Irish terriers
  2. Irish Traveller
  3. Irish Travellers
  4. Irish twin
  5. Irish twins
  6. Irish up
  7. Irish water spaniel
  8. Irish water spaniels
  9. Irish waterfall
  10. Irish whip
  11. Irish whips

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Irish up (page history and authors); Irish up (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Irish up.wav.

Cite this entry: “Irish up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/irish_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.