send up

present singular third person sends up · participle present sending up · participle past sent up · past sent up

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see send, up.

   Fears of war sent oil prices up by 10%.

2. transitiveTo imitate (someone or something) for the purpose of satirical humour.

   The programme accurately sends up the British Civil Service system at Whitehall.

   2 more examples

   It started out running adverts that sent up the products they were supposed to be promoting. Today you scarcely see an advert that isn't sending up itself.

   2004 November 18, William Cook, “All in the worst possible taste”, in The Guardian

   He had more fun co-writing and directing two series for the BBC called Ripping Yarns (1976-79) in which Palin starred as a series of heroic characters in mock-adventure stories, among them Across the Andes by Frog, and Roger of the Raj, sending up interwar literature aimed at schoolboys.

   2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian

3. USslangtransitiveTo put in prison.

   The judge sent him up for three years.

   1 more example

   "I guess you're a wise one, all right, but what's the use? I tell you we've got enough on you already to send you up. You might as well talk straight."

   1913, Rex Stout, Her Forbidden Knight, Carroll & Graf, published 1997, →ISBN, page 161

4. transitiveTo cause (something, e.g. sparks) to erupt.

   Where the metal touched the asphalt, it sent up a shower of sparks.