set up

phrasal verb · set-up noun · adjective

21 meanings of set up

1
phrasal verbtransitive
To get something ready so that it can be used.
The band arrived early to set up their equipment before the doors opened.
Volunteers were setting up chairs in the gym for the town meeting.
Similarprepare, assemble, install, arrange
Oppositedismantle, disassemble
Note
The everyday core of the phrase, and its object can stand on either side of up: set up the tent, set the tent up. A pronoun always goes in the middle (set it up, never set up it). Without an object it becomes the object-less use, as when the band is setting up, and once the work is done you are ready to go: all set up.
2
establishphrasal verbtransitive
To found or start something such as a business, an organization, or a scheme.
After retiring, she set up a charity that pays for music lessons for children.
The government is setting up a fund to help farmers hit by the drought.
Similarestablish, found, start (entry), create, launch
Oppositedissolve, disband, close
3
lead tophrasal verbtransitive
To cause or bring about an event or situation.
The semifinal victory sets up a rematch with last year's champions.
Cold air moving over the warm lake can set up bands of heavy snow downwind.
Similarcreate, cause, produce
4
get readyphrasal verbintransitive
To get things ready for use before an activity begins.
Vendors set up at dawn along Main Street, hours before the market opened.
The photographer asked for twenty minutes to set up before the shoot.
Similarprepare
5
noun · set-upBritish
Alternative form of setup.
The manager switched to a three-at-the-back set-up after the break.
Police insisted the raid was genuine, but his solicitor called it a set-up.
Note
The hyphenated spelling of the noun is chiefly British; elsewhere it is usually closed up as setup. The meanings are setup's own: how something is organized (the new railway set-up), a team's formation (a 4-2-3-1 set-up), a trap laid to frame someone. The verb never takes the hyphen: you set up the room, and the set-up works.
6
framephrasal verbcolloquialtransitive
To trick or lure someone into a trap, often so that they take the blame for a crime.
The defense argued that the informant had set up their client to win a lighter sentence for himself.
The dealer realized too late that the buyer was a cop and he had been set up.
Similarframe
Note
It belongs to police and courtroom talk and is most often heard in the passive, from someone who says the trap was laid for them: I was set up. Frame, frame up and put up are its close partners, and the trap itself is a setup. Out of context, we were set up can also mean introduced on a date, so the rest of the sentence has to show which.
7
arrange a datephrasal verbtransitive
To act as a matchmaker, arranging a date between two people.
Her coworkers kept trying to set up the new guy with someone from accounting.
They were set up by mutual friends and married two years later.
8
phrasal verbtransitive
To provide someone with what they need to begin in a business or a position.
A wealthy patron set up the young painter in a studio overlooking the harbor.
Once his son was set up in the trade, the old printer finally retired.
Similarestablish, install
9
provide forphrasal verbtransitive
To give someone the money or other support they need for an important task or activity.
The inheritance left her set up for life, with no need to work again.
The foundation sets up young researchers with lab space and a year of funding.
10
put in orderphrasal verbtransitive
To arrange things in a sensible, logical order.
Before the exam, he set up his notes by topic so he could find things quickly.
The librarian is setting up the new collection by author and date.
Similararrange, organize, order, sort

11
fix (result)phrasal verbtransitive
To arrange the result of a contest or event dishonestly; to rig it.
Investigators found that gamblers had set up the match by bribing two referees.
The quiz show was set up, with the winner fed the answers in advance.
Similarrig, fix
12
ready to goadjective
Ready, and in a position to work or function.
Once we're set up in the new office, we can start taking clients again.
The kitchen crew was fully set up an hour before the first guests arrived.
Similarready, prepared, settled
Oppositeunprepared
13
assist (sports)phrasal verbtransitive
To create a scoring chance for a teammate, or to make the play that leads to a goal.
The midfielder set up both goals, threading passes through the defense.
Her quick pass set up the forward for an easy tap-in.
Similarcreate
Note
Match reports use it for the pass or cross that makes a goal possible, and its object can be the goal or the scorer: Agbonlahor set up the second, crossing for Bent to net; Portu set up Yangel Herrera. The player set up is a teammate, whereas in the boxing sense the one set up is the opponent.
14
hardenphrasal verbintransitive
To become firm, thickening into a gel or hardening solid.
Let the custard set up overnight before you slice the pie.
Concrete poured in cold weather takes longer to set up.
Similarset, thicken, firm, harden
15
start outphrasal verbdatedintransitive
To start up in business, or to begin a particular way of life.
Having learned the craft as an apprentice, he set up in trade as a cabinetmaker.
Many young lawyers dream of setting up for themselves instead of joining a big firm.
Note
An older way of saying someone started out on their own, with no object: he set up in trade, she set up for herself. It has a dated ring now. Present-day English names what is started, as in set up a firm or set up shop, which is the founding sense at work.
16
make proudphrasal verbtransitive
To make someone feel proud of themselves, or conceited.
Early praise can set up a young writer so much that she stops listening to her editors.
The young officer was rather too set up by his quick promotion.
Note
Pride is the point here, and the verb is often passive: she was quite set up by the praise. In Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety (1992), a compliment from Robespierre sets Madame up for the day. A good breakfast sets you up for the day too, but with energy; this kind feeds vanity.
17
boxing trickphrasal verbtransitive
To fool an opponent with a punch or move and then exploit the reaction, as by drawing an opening for the next blow.
The veteran set up his younger opponent with a feint to the body and caught him with a hook.
Fighters who can set up opponents patiently rarely need to brawl.
Note
Boxers use it for a precise two-step idea, and Jack Dempsey's Championship Fighting (1950) draws the line clearly. Making an opening only gets an opponent to uncover a target; setting him up knocks him off balance with one punch so that he is open for the next. The deceiving blow comes first, the scoring one second.
18
claim to bephrasal verbintransitive
To lay public claim to a character or quality, or to pretend to have it.
Critics who set up as guardians of good taste are often the first to be mocked.
He set up for a man of learning, though he had read little beyond the newspapers.
Note
What follows for or as is the character claimed, and the claim often rings hollow. Jonathan Swift's On the Testimony of Conscience speaks of men who set up for morality without regard to religion. The same words can describe starting out in business, as in set up as a baker, so context, not the construction, shows whether someone took up a part or merely claimed it.
19
rise (water)phrasal verbintransitive
Of the water level, to rise in one part of a lake or other body of water, especially a shallow one, as persistent wind drives a storm surge.
Sustained north winds can make the water set up several feet at the south end of a shallow lake.
Boaters were warned that the water in the sound would set up overnight as the gale drove it toward shore.
Similarrise
20
scare birdsphrasal verbtransitive
To cause birds or other creatures to take flight; to flush them into the air.
The beaters moved through the heather, setting up grouse for the guns.
A low plane over the marsh can set up thousands of geese at once.
Similarflush, rouse
21
printingphrasal verbobsolete
To arrange pieces of type in a composing stick for printing; to typeset.
Working by candlelight, the journeyman set up the sermon letter by letter in his composing stick.
It took two compositors a full day to set up the broadside in type.
Similarcompose
Note
Printers once used it for placing type in the composing stick, and the use is now obsolete. The trade's lasting words are compose and set, and the person who does the work is a compositor. Meeting it in an old printing record, read set up as typeset, not as getting something ready in the everyday way.

Practice

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Origin

Deverbal from set up.