Definition of "set up"

set up

verb
third-person singular simple present sets up, present participle setting up, simple past and past participle set up
1. (transitive) To ready for use.
2. (transitive) To arrange logically.
3. (transitive) To cause to happen.
  Quotations
  England's famous victory sets up a meeting with Sweden in Samara on Saturday
  2018 July 3, Phil McNulty, “Colombia 1 - 1 England”, in BBC Sport‎
4. (transitive) To trap or ensnare.
5. (transitive) To arrange for an outcome; to tamper or rig.
6. (intransitive) To ready something for use.
7. (intransitive) To gel or harden.
8. (intransitive) 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.
9. (transitive) To provide the money or other support that someone needs for an important task or activity.
  Quotations
  If you ever need anything, come back here, and I'll set you up!
  1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
10. (transitive) To establish someone in a business or position.
11. (informal, transitive, criminology) To trick or lure (someone) in order to entrap them; to frame.
12. (transitive) To make (someone) proud or conceited (often in passive).
  Quotations
  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.
  1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, pages 286–7
13. (transitive) To matchmake; to arrange a date between two people.
14. (sports, transitive) To create a goalscoring opportunity (for).
  Quotations
  Just past the hour Agbonlahor set up the second, crossing for Bent to net.
  2011 October 1, John Sinnott, “Aston Villa 2 - 0 Wigan”, in BBC Sport‎
15. (dated, intransitive) To begin business or a scheme of life.
16. To profess openly; to make pretensions.
  Quotations
  those men who set up for morality without regard to religion, are generally virtuous but in part
  1744 (first printed) Jonathan Swift, On the Testimony of Conscience
17. (transitive) To found; to start (a business, scheme)
  Quotations
  With the help of his wife Bilquis, he set up a maternal health clinic and a centre for abandoned children.
  2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in the Guardian‎
18. (boxing) To deceive an opponent and capitalize on their reactions with a certain technique or maneuver.
  Quotations
  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.
  1950, Jack Dempsey, chapter 23, in Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense
  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."
  1997 September 24, Joe Duffy, “TRIBUTES TO THE MAN AND THE BOXER”, in Hartford Courant‎
19. To cause to take flight; to flush into the air.
  Quotations
  Edmund had enjoyed a good gallop over the downs, setting up the sandpipers[.]
  1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 27
adjective
comparative more set up, superlative most set up
1. In a position to function; ready.

Definition of "set up"

set up

verb

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adjective