soup
soup — noun
1. a warm or hot liquid dish made by cooking meat, vegetables, fish, or grains in w
a warm or hot liquid dish made by cooking meat, vegetables, fish, or grains in water or flavoured cooking liquid until their flavours blend together.
On cold winter nights, Wren enjoys a bowl of hot chicken soup with noodles.
collocation: bowl of soup / chicken soup
The chef simmered the vegetable soup for two hours to bring out the flavour.
Lucía added too much salt to the soup and used potato slices to absorb it.
My grandmother's tomato soup recipe uses fresh basil and a little cream.
For a light evening meal, Aisha often makes a pot of vegetable soup with fresh bread.
- broth
a thin, clear soup made by simmering meat or vegetables, often used as a base for other soups
- stew
thicker than soup, with larger chunks of meat and vegetables and less liquid
- chowder
a thick soup containing fish, seafood, or corn, often made with milk or cream
- bisque
a smooth, creamy soup usually made from shellfish
文法句型
a bowl/cup of soup
[type] soup
用法筆記
Most commonly uncountable (some soup, a lot of soup), but countable when referring to specific varieties (three soups of the day).
常見錯誤
2. any substance that has a thick, wet consistency similar to that of liquid food,
any substance that has a thick, wet consistency similar to that of liquid food, such as fog, mud, or a chemical mixture.
A thick soup of fog covered the harbour, making it hard for ships to dock.
metaphor: a soup of fog
The rain turned the dirt road into a muddy soup that splashed onto our boots.
The melting snow turned the hiking trail into a cold soup of mud and gravel.
Vikram found the old pond had become a green soup of algae by late summer.
文法句型
a soup of [substance]
[adjective] soup
用法筆記
Used descriptively to give a vivid image of a thick, often unpleasant liquid mixture. Not a technical term — it is a figurative extension of sense 1.
3. a messy collection of ideas, things, or parts that are mixed together and hard t
a messy collection of ideas, things, or parts that are mixed together and hard to separate or make sense of.
His essay was a soup of unrelated ideas with no clear argument or direction.
metaphor: a soup of [unrelated things]
The meeting turned into a soup of complaints, with nobody agreeing on a plan.
The film's plot was a confusing soup of time travel and dream sequences.
Xiu's desktop folder was a soup of documents with no clear filing system.
- mishmash
a confused mixture of things; more informal and often implies low quality
- jumble
an untidy collection of things; can refer to physical objects or ideas
- hodgepodge
a mixed collection of different things; similar to mishmash but more common in American English
- order
a state where things are arranged neatly or logically
文法句型
a soup of [plural noun]
用法筆記
Always used figuratively. Unlike sense 1, which refers to actual liquid food, this sense describes abstract mixtures of ideas or spoken content.
4. the mixture of organic chemicals and water that scientists believe existed on th
the mixture of organic chemicals and water that scientists believe existed on the early Earth before any form of life appeared. The first living cells may have developed from this mixture.
The experiment tried to recreate the conditions of the primordial soup inside a glass flask.
domain: primordial soup in origin-of-life theories
Some scientists think life formed in the warm primordial soup of ancient oceans.
Chemists think the first cells formed in the warm primordial soup of early oceans, after millions of years of mixing.
Scientists used electric sparks to test whether amino acids could form in primordial soup.
文法句型
primordial soup
用法筆記
Almost always used with the adjective 'primordial' as part of the fixed scientific term 'primordial soup'. Avoid using 'soup' alone for this meaning.
5. a difficult, unpleasant, or embarrassing situation — used almost exclusively in
a difficult, unpleasant, or embarrassing situation — used almost exclusively in the fixed expression 'in the soup'.
When Brian forgot his wife's birthday, he was really in the soup.
idiom: in the soup = in trouble
The company landed in the soup after the manager was caught stealing money.
Lin knew she would be in the soup if she did not finish the sales report before the Monday meeting.
The politician found himself in the soup when his speech went viral online.
文法句型
be in the soup
land/get in the soup
用法筆記
This sense only appears in the fixed phrase 'in the soup'. Do not use 'soup' alone or with other prepositions to mean trouble. More common in British English than American English.