as in devised
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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as in invented
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Recent Examples of trumped-up
Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 22 Nov. 2023
Erdogan’s government has thrown (or attempted to throw) a number of key political opponents into jail on what critics say are trumped-up, spurious charges.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 10 May 2023
Literary Hub, 19 Aug. 2025
Verb
The charge was clearly trumped-up, but Yundi was immediately taken off all Chinese stages and media and prevented from going abroad.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 22 Nov. 2023
Erdogan’s government has thrown (or attempted to throw) a number of key political opponents into jail on what critics say are trumped-up, spurious charges.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 10 May 2023
Adjective
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for trumped-up
Verb
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What neither side has devised is an easy offramp to prevent what could become a protracted closure.—
Mary Clare Jalonick,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
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Prior to Leucippus, earlier scientist-philosophers had devised the concepts of elements as components of reality, and often looked to one component in particular as being the fundamental originator — or arche (ἀρχή) — of all the others.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
30 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Prosecutors described Sanaa Cunningham’s death as the result of a murder plot concocted by her father and stepmother, Germayne and Lisa Cunningham, following months of abuse and neglect.—
Perry Vandell,
AZCentral.com,
29 Sep. 2025
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Swartz concocted this massive blockbuster trade idea, which sends Brown to his hometown team, the Atlanta Hawks.—
Ricardo Klein,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Gerl, pointing to online speculation about the legitimacy of the text messages released by federal law enforcement, said that such doubts, even if unproven, could complicate the prosecution’s narrative.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
2 Oct. 2025
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As an example, over the most recent summer, Ko Itakura and Alassane Plea, the team’s best centre-back and most important utility attacker respectively, were both sold, with the squad being reinforced only with cheaper, unproven players.—
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The game encouraged competitive streaks, teamwork, and plenty of giggles, with parents noting it was well constructed, self-contained, and easy to store or bring along to grandma’s house.—
Emily Glover,
Parents,
2 Oct. 2025
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The World of Flight, the name of the basketball-skewed concept, will be located at 1617 Walnut Street in an historic Beaux Arts building constructed in the early 1900s.—
Jean E. Palmieri,
Footwear News,
2 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Throughout the enrollment process, there was no reason to believe the official birth certificate was fraudulent.—
Marni Rose McFall,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Oct. 2025
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One plaintiff claimed their debit card was allegedly used for $80 in fraudulent charges.—
Chase Jordan
October 2,
Charlotte Observer,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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History of Perms 1930s The first perm machine was invented in the early 1900s, and the perm machine in the 1930s mirrored something of an over-the-top medieval device.—
Kaitlyn Yarborough,
Southern Living,
4 Oct. 2025
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Physicists invented ether as a medium through which light waves traveled.—
Dipangkar Dutta,
The Conversation,
3 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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And while OpenAI’s defenders could chalk that up to an isolated or even made-up incident, within 24 hours of the GPT-5 launch Altman was doing damage control, seemingly caught of guard by the bad reception.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
14 Aug. 2025
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Because a lot of things on reality TV are made-up situations and scenarios to provoke reactions and all of that stuff.—
Ryan Morik,
FOXNews.com,
2 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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At Comedy Central, Colbert rose to prominence playing a slightly exaggerated version of Bill O’Reilly and other unapologetically mendacious Fox News pundits from the George W. Bush years.—
Alan Sepinwall,
Rolling Stone,
18 July 2025
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The true story reveals both how freedom of speech first came to be conceived of as a mechanism for truth, an antidote to falsehood, and the foundation of all liberty—and that, ironically, this new and powerful theory was itself a deliberately mendacious fiction.—
Fara Dabhoiwala,
Harpers Magazine,
4 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Trumped-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trumped-up. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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