send-up
Americannoun
verb
-
slang to send to prison
-
informal to make fun of, esp by doing an imitation or parody of
he sent up the teacher marvellously
noun
-
Put in prison, as in He'll be sent up for at least ten years . [Mid-1800s]
-
Cause to rise, as in The emissions sent up by that factory are clearly poisonous . [Late 1500s]
-
Satirize, make a parody of, as in This playwright has a genius for sending up suburban life . [First half of 1900s]
-
send up a trial balloon . See trial balloon .
Etymology
Origin of send-up
First recorded in 1955–60; noun use of verb phrase send up, in sense “to parody”; compare earlier Brit. academic usage “to mock, scoff at”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ashton Kutcher’s performance as the soulless mogul Byron Forst is an obvious send-up of Elon Musk.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 21, 2026
A camp send-up of old-school issue-of-the-week TV movies?
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2025
It’s a thriller about petty men undone by aspiration: mostly silly, sure, but also at times clever in its send-up of electoral politics.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 4, 2024
I'd go so far as to posit the show was obligated to circle back to this question since it primarily functions as a send-up of cinematic genres.
From Salon • Sep. 2, 2023
A horse hitched to the end of the chain hauls up the log, which is guided by the "send-up men" with their cant-hooks.
From Handwork in Wood by Noyes, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
