Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
put-up

put-up

1 8.1
Arranged secretly to make something look real but trick people
  • adjective
  • /ˈpʊtˌʌp/
  • Informal
translation icon : fingido
  • A put-up job.
  • put-up job

Examples

  • Until an independent effort is made to put up competent candidates who can run against these folks, it is going to be business as usual.

    Blog text (32)

  • Passengers have to put up a fight on such issues, he said.

    Blog text (12)

  • Even 9/11 was a put-up job.

    Blog text (7)

  • It is put-up-or-shut-up time for this staff.

    Blog text (4)

  • Skeptics argued that the project was a put-up plan to cover up the true intentions of the organization.

  • He realized that the entire event was just a put-up scheme to deceive the investors.

  • The sudden changes in the company policy seemed like a put-up to distract employees from the real issues.

Synonyms

trumped-up
vsput-up
9 7.9

Fake charges made to blame someone unfairly

is a secretly arranged scheme rather than just an invented charge
put-on
vsput-up
  • Informal
8 7.6

Seems real but is actually false

is a secretly arranged action made for a particular deceptive purpose

Antonyms

open
∞ 1.0

Not closed so people or things can go through

honest
∞ 1.0

Truthful and fair, not cheating or lying

How Staged

put-up
  • Informal
1 8.1
staged
4.3
contrived
28 7.4
planned
26 1.0
spontaneous
187 4.2

Surface Forms

put-up positive

Morphology

put-up = put (opaque) = up + put

The form is built from the phrasal verb 'put up', but the sense 'secretly arranged or contrived' is idiomatic and not predictable from the two parts alone. [Postprocessing: moved 'up' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

The word put-up comes from the everyday parts put and up, which together mean to 'place' or 'arrange' something. Think of someone 'putting up' a fake show behind the scenes, so a put-up plan is secretly arranged to trick people.