jazz up
Britishverb
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to imbue (a piece of music) with jazz qualities, esp by improvisation or a quicker tempo
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to make more lively, gaudy, or appealing
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Enliven, make more interesting, as in They jazzed up the living room with a new rug , or They decided to include a comedy act to jazz up the program .
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Modify so as to increase its performance, as in Peter wanted to jazz up his motorbike with a stronger engine . Both usages are colloquialisms from the mid-1900s. Also see juice up .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s time for an experience-based gift, to jazz up your routine.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026
"It was a way to jazz up the naan to make it more appealing for non-Indians, while Indians could feel less guilty about eating their traditional food abroad," Mr Saran says.
From BBC • Dec. 29, 2025
But rate cuts alone probably aren’t enough to jazz up the economy.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 24, 2025
By word of mouth, however, and probably the need of some newspaper columnists to jazz up the game, Super Bowl stuck.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 31, 2025
Pretty, and Dazzling! to jazz up and stretch the words Jason has in bigger directions, and Joke, so he can be sarcastic if he wants.
From "Rules" by Cynthia Lord
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
