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Synonyms

trump up

British  

verb

  1. (tr, adverb) to concoct or invent (a charge, accusation, etc) so as to deceive or implicate someone

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
trump up Idioms  

  1. Concoct fraudulently, fabricate, as in They trumped up a charge of conspiracy, or She had trumped up another excuse for not doing the work. This expression, first recorded in 1695, uses trump in the sense of “devise fraudulently,” a usage otherwise obsolete.

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.

Prosecutors have accused the defense of trying to turn the case into a trial on USC's admissions policies instead of whether the parents agreed to lie and trump up their kids' athletic credentials.

From Fox News • Sep. 8, 2021

“They did it ‘without cause’ so they wouldn’t be judged on what they tried to trump up on me,” Parker said.

From Washington Times • Aug. 19, 2020

“We don’t just trump up charges on people so that we can hold them,” Dunlap said, adding that he didn’t buy into stereotypes about immigrants.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 29, 2015

When the threatened businesses refused to accede to those demands, both accusers use the businesses’ actions to trump up the charges:

From Slate • Dec. 17, 2014

I tried to say something, to trump up an excuse; my mouth opened wide but no words came out.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane

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.