Find the word definition

The Collaborative International Dictionary
To trump up

Trump \Trump\, v. t. [F. tromper to deceive, in OF., to blow a trumpet, se tromper de to mock. See Trump a trumpet.]

  1. To trick, or impose on; to deceive. [Obs.] ``To trick or trump mankind.''
    --B. Jonson.

  2. To impose unfairly; to palm off.

    Authors have been trumped upon us.
    --C. Leslie.

    To trump up, to devise; to collect with unfairness; to fabricate; as, to trump up a charge.

Usage examples of "to trump up".

The idea was to trump up a domestic terrorist threat in order to allow him to pursue his agenda to pass the Freedom from Fear Act.

That will protect her title and quash any move to trump up some sort of criminal charge against her, but not even the Queen can force the Lords to seat a peer they've voted to exclude.

That will protect her title and quash any move to trump up some sort of criminal charge against her, but not even the Queen can force the Lords to seat a peer they’.

We next find a very curious letter, from which it appears that the French Government inclined to regard Marsilly as, in fact, an agent of Charles, but thought it wiser to trump up against him a charge of conspiring against the life of Louis XIV.