as in to devise
to create or think of by clever use of the imagination
parents who were always trumping up little projects for their children to do around the house
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Recent Examples of trump up
She was elected to the country's National Assembly in 2010, only to be expelled four years later on allegations her supporters said were trumped up.
—
Alexander Smith, NBC news, 10 Oct. 2025
Although the woman-alien’s powers were trumped up to comedic effect, Estelle could not help but see that beneath its B-movie veneer, Devil Girl from Mars tapped into a looming anxiety that was palpable all around.
—Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Activist groups say the charges against him were trumped up.
—Gabe Levin, Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2025
Yes, his relationship with alcohol seems to be not great and complicated, but these charges still seem trumped up to me.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 11 June 2025
In their response, Petrova’s attorneys accused the government of trumping up criminal charges in a bid to prevent her bail and motions from being heard in federal court.
—Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN Money, 28 May 2025
And, while the charges were most likely trumped up, the city’s leaders were correct about one thing: Young people are highly suggestible.
—Patricia Schultheis, Baltimore Sun, 11 May 2025
The work was banned by the Malian Ministry of Culture and Cissé was arrested and jailed on trumped up charges of accepting French funding.
—Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 20 Feb. 2025
Human rights groups and some Western countries have accused Iran of trying to win concessions from other nations through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up.
—Fox News, 19 Feb. 2025
Alexander Smith, NBC news, 10 Oct. 2025
Although the woman-alien’s powers were trumped up to comedic effect, Estelle could not help but see that beneath its B-movie veneer, Devil Girl from Mars tapped into a looming anxiety that was palpable all around.
—Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Activist groups say the charges against him were trumped up.
—Gabe Levin, Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2025
Yes, his relationship with alcohol seems to be not great and complicated, but these charges still seem trumped up to me.
—Brian Moylan, Vulture, 11 June 2025
In their response, Petrova’s attorneys accused the government of trumping up criminal charges in a bid to prevent her bail and motions from being heard in federal court.
—Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN Money, 28 May 2025
And, while the charges were most likely trumped up, the city’s leaders were correct about one thing: Young people are highly suggestible.
—Patricia Schultheis, Baltimore Sun, 11 May 2025
The work was banned by the Malian Ministry of Culture and Cissé was arrested and jailed on trumped up charges of accepting French funding.
—Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 20 Feb. 2025
Human rights groups and some Western countries have accused Iran of trying to win concessions from other nations through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up.
—Fox News, 19 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for trump up
Verb
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The most visible plans are those devised by the same international custodians who have engineered postwar order elsewhere in the Middle East.—
Mohammed R. Mhawish,
New Yorker,
14 Oct. 2025
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To that end, the Charlotte Symphony commissioned Grammy-winning composer Mason Bates to devise a brief musical signature called a sonic logo for the orchestra.—
Adam Bell,
Charlotte Observer,
13 Oct. 2025
Verb
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SpaceX’s luck appears to be turning, as the company notched a second straight successful test flight of the Starship launch system — the most powerful rocket ever constructed — on Monday evening.—
Jackie Wattles,
CNN Money,
14 Oct. 2025
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Exercises focused on how to find and purify water, fish and hunt for animals, forage for edible plants, find dry wood to build a fire and construct palm leaf-sapling lean-to shelters.—
Kit Bernardi,
USA Today,
14 Oct. 2025
Verb
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One of the smartest things the subgroup of three commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick did in concocting a 12-team CFP format was to grant automatic playoff berths to the top six conference champions (later five after the Pac-12’s collapse).—
Chris Vannini,
New York Times,
11 Oct. 2025
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Maybe the purposefully ambiguous coda was concocted to prove some sort of Rashomon-style truth-is-subjective point.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
9 Oct. 2025
Verb
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There’s no manual on how to invent forgeries.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
16 Oct. 2025
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Rendezvous recently secured $3 million in pre-seed funding to commercialize the technology invented while Ekblaw was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.—
Judith Kohler,
Denver Post,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The hope is that leaking this footage, as well as other assets in the coming weeks, will drum up the buzz needed to get the movie made.—
Nick Romano,
Entertainment Weekly,
10 Oct. 2025
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Intel, the once-dominant chipmaker, is in a fight for its life that requires it to aggressively move into leading-edge chips, including those optimized for AI, while drumming up the funding to float that expensive transition.—
Alyson Shontell,
Fortune,
8 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Trump up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trump%20up. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.
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