send-up
noun
an entertaining or humorous burlesque or parody; takeoff.
send-up
American
[send-uhp]
/ ˈsɛndˌʌp /
Or
sendup
noun
send up
British
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
send up
Idioms
-
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.
See Examples For:
A multi-billion dollar cartoon franchise is a strange place to find a send-up of silent films, but “Minions & Monsters” does just that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
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
Tina Fey’s send-up of a fictional “Saturday Night Live”-type show, and satirical look at the television business in general, is just as biting and gimlet-eyed as it was when it premiered almost 20 years ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
Set in the buttoned-up town of Fallwell, Massachusetts, it’s a fizzy send-up of small-town sanctimony and monster-movie melodrama.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2025
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 William Noyes
"It's going to impact and its going to send up a huge plume of dust, maybe 50km into the air or more, and that's going to spread sideways over time," Bothwell said.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Should a fire start, there’s an increased risk that it will spread rapidly and send up a large vertical plume, which can result in erratic fire behavior, according to the weather service.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Trump earlier this week said Venezuela would send up to 50 million barrels of its oil to the U.S. to be sold at market prices.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 9, 2026
The concept is unproven, although Alphabet’s Google and satellite operator Planet Labs struck a deal to send up two prototype satellites with Google AI chips on board in 2027.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
One month later, as a countermeasure, the United States tried to send up its first test vehicle, named Vanguard.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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.
