English

Alternative forms

• put up (adj.)

Adjective

put-up ‎(not comparable)

1. (of an event) Secretly arranged in advance, especially in order to defraud someone or to advance one's own interests.
   • 2006 Apr. 7, Jim Geraghty, "Where Blogosphere Has Succeeded, And Where It's Fallen Short," CBS News (retrieved 27 June 2015):

     Orrin Judd at the BrothersJudd.com declared that Carroll "may as well just come right out and say she was a willing participant" . . . and a commenter at RedState.com asserted, ". . . I say the kidnapping was a put up deal from the get go."

   • 2009 March 28, Dina Kraft, "British war hero to be investigated again for murder of Jewish 'terrorist'," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 27 June 2015):

     Gerald Green . . . said he was innocent and the documents were a deliberate effort, perhaps concocted by a superior officer, to frame him. . . . "The whole thing was a put-up stunt."

   • 2012 June 23, Waylon Johnston, "Cleared of setting up theft scenario," Times of Malta (retrieved 27 June 2015):

     A “romantically obsessed ” Italian man was yesterday acquitted of conspiring to steal his former lover ’s mobile phone by commissioning a hapless duo to take it from her after a put-up mock traffic accident.

   • 2013 Apr. 3, Anurag Behar "RTE and the activity trap," livemint.com (retrieved 27 June 2015):

     None of this is a sham: it is not a put-up show for us.

Derived terms

• put-up job

Noun

put-up ‎(plural put-ups)

1. Something prearranged or faked in order to trick someone or to advance one's own interests.
   • 2012 Apr. 25, "No Girls Gone Wild in Washington?," fitsnews.com (retrieved 27 June 2015):

     A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) – the Senator in question – told The Arkansas Times that the whole thing was a put-up and that no internship in the Senator’s office had been purchased at auction.