put-up job

noun

An attempt to trick, deceive, or con someone.

“It seemed to be a really good opportunity, but it turned out to be nothing but a put-up job.”

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounput-up job (plural put-up jobs)

plural put-up jobs

  1. idiomaticAn attempt to trick, deceive, or con someone.

    It seemed to be a really good opportunity, but it turned out to be nothing but a put-up job.

    3 more examples

    “The whole thing's a low put-up job on our noble credulity.”

    1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 62

    "Ah, so you damn rat, this is a put-up job eh?"

    1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XVIII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 185

    Edgar (J. Edgar Hoover), you set me up — a put-up job! I will fucking crush you!

    2018 October 5, Wesley Strick, “The New Colossus”, in The Man in the High Castle (TV series), season 3, episode 5, spoken by George Lincoln Rockwell (David Furr)
Cite this entry
APA

put-up job. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put-up%20job

MLA

“put-up job.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put-up%20job. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “put-up job,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/put-up%20job.

Source: put-up job on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.