set up
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: sĕt'ŭp'
Forms: form: sets up
form: setting up
form: set up
form: set up
Senses: examples: text: We set up the sprinkler.
glosses: To ready for use.
examples: text: Set up my CD collection.
glosses: To arrange logically.
examples: text: Even a minor change can set up new bugs.
text: England's famous victory sets up a meeting with Sweden in Samara on Saturday
ref: 2018 July 3, Phil McNulty, “Colombia 1 - 1 England”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To cause to happen.
examples: text: I've got to set up that tasty rabbit.
glosses: To trap or ensnare.
examples: text: The election was set up!
glosses: To arrange for an outcome; to tamper or rig.
glosses: To ready something for use.
examples: text: Give the cement 24 hours to set up before walking on it.
glosses: To gel or harden.
examples: text: The level set up at the south end of the lake after a day of north winds.
glosses: To level to rise in one part of a body of water, especially a shallow one, because of a storm surge caused by persistent wind.
examples: text: Winning the lottery has set them up for life.
text: A good breakfast really sets you up for the day.
text: If you ever need anything, come back here, and I'll set you up!
ref: 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:
glosses: To provide the money or other support that someone needs for an important task or activity.
examples: text: After he left college, his father set him up in the family business.
text: She set herself up as an interior designer.
glosses: To establish someone in a business or position.
examples: text: They claimed that they weren't selling drugs, but that they'd been set up by the police.
topics: criminology
human-sciences
law
sciences
synonyms: frame#Verb
frame up
put up
glosses: To trick or lure (someone) in order to entrap them.
examples: text: M. Robespierre looked at me sideways and smiled and said to Madame, ‘You're a young lady after my own heart.’ This set her up for the day.
ref: 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, pages 286–7:
glosses: To make (someone) proud or conceited (often in passive).
glosses: To matchmake; to arrange a date between two people.
examples: text: Just past the hour Agbonlahor set up the second, crossing for Bent to net.
ref: 2011 October 1, John Sinnott, “Aston Villa 2 - 0 Wigan”, in BBC Sport:
text: On 71.05, Portu brilliantly set up Yangel Herrera, only for Marc-André ter Stegen to make a sensational save.
ref: 2024 May 6, Sid Lowe, “Portu’s brilliant burst seals Girona’s top-four fairytale in the perfect way”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To create a goalscoring opportunity (for).
examples: text: to set up in trade; to set up for oneself
glosses: To begin business or a scheme of life.
examples: 1744 (first printed) Jonathan Swift, On the Testimony of Conscience
those men who set up for morality without regard to religion, are generally virtuous but in part
glosses: To profess openly; to make pretensions.
examples: text: With the help of his wife Bilquis, he set up a maternal health clinic and a centre for abandoned children.
ref: 2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in the Guardian:
glosses: To found; to start (a business, scheme)
examples: text: When you make an opening you merely cause an opponent to uncover a target somewhere on his person. But when you set up an opponent, you knock him off balance with one punch so that he should be an open target for a following punch. Unless he's knocked off balance, he's not set up.
ref: 1950, Jack Dempsey, chapter 23, in Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense:
text: Writer Danny Wamboldt of Ring magazine said, "Only Willie knew how to set up his opponents masterfully and then move in." Wamboldt, a former New England bantamweight champion and current national president of the Veteran Boxers Association, said that one of Pep's opponents said of his dazzling speed: "It was the first time he had been surrounded by one man."
ref: 1997 September 24, Joe Duffy, “TRIBUTES TO THE MAN AND THE BOXER”, in Hartford Courant:
topics: boxing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: To deceive an opponent and capitalize on their reactions with a certain technique or maneuver.
examples: text: Edmund had enjoyed a good gallop over the downs, setting up the sandpipers[.]
ref: 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 27:
glosses: To cause to take flight; to flush into the air.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: Synonym of compose (To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset)
synonyms: word: compose
extra: (To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset)
Synonyms: sense: to ready
word: install
sense: to ready
word: put in
sense: to ready
word: ready
sense: to ready
word: prepare
sense: to ready
word: assemble
sense: to ready
word: configure
Derived terms: set up camp
set up one's bristles
set up one's rest
set up one's staff
set up shop
set up someone's birse