Green’s Dictionary of Slang

set-up n.1

1. as a position, a place.

(a) a person’s carriage, deportment or body.

T.C. Crawford Eng. Life 147: [English soldiers] have a set-up not to be found in any of the soldiers of the Continental armies [DA].
[US]H.M. Anderson Strip Tease 44: ‘A swell set-up’ is a good [female] figure.

(b) (US) a place, esp. one’s home, office etc.

[US]J. Lait Broadway Melody 25: I’m fixin’ a set-up with him for you.
[US]J. Lait Gangster Girl 3: If you don’t care for the set-up, toss on the rags and scram.
[US]B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 278: All I can tell you is that I’d pull out of this set-up so fast ...
[US]M. Spillane One Lonely Night 33: This was supposed to be a Commie setup.
[UK]R. Hauser Homosexual Society 50: A ‘nice set-up’ is needed for professional purposes in order to impress on the customer that he is with a really high-class prostitute.
[UK]P. Theroux Family Arsenal 88: This is quite a nice set-up.
[UK](con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 117: You’ve seen the set-up.
[US]D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 15: Paradise might be a setup like this, Shade thought.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett White Shoes 30: Noton was right about the disco set-up. It was a local radio station.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 22: It was also a nice setup for the stickup boys.
[Ire]P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 107: It’s an excuse to [...] check out the set-up and the facilities and shit.

2. (also set-out) any situation, experience, e.g. what’s the set-up over there?

[UK]J. Conrad Lord Jim 42: ‘What’s the use of it? It is the stupidest set-out you can imagine,’ he pursued, hotly.
[US]T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 72: Corbett admits himself that, instead of worrying about the set-up in front of him, he was thinking of the big posters that he’d got out, reading: ‘James J. Corbett, champion of the world’.
[US]J. Lait Broadway Melody 75: Her mental set-up did not run to psychology.
[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 57: We ought to have a sure-enough set-up here.
[UK]Liverpool Dly Post 15 Dec. 4/1: The whole set-up of workmen’s compensation was [...] unfair to ther workmen.
[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 62: No clues. No nothing. The perfect set-up.
[UK]Berwick Advertiser 20 May 5/4: There is no change in the Berwick Town Council set-up as a result of [...] elections.
[US]‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 29: Casey had worked for the Canadian Pacific in years gone by and he knowed the set-up.
[UK]F. Norman Guntz 23: Well I had nothing whatever to lose by agreeing to this little set up.
[UK]G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 39: The CID set-up was tailor-made for his personality.
[Aus]B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 107: The Sheiks go in for bigamy in a big way and none of the sheilahs seem to mind the set-up.
[US](con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 56: ‘Here’s the setup,’ said Karras.
[UK]K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 47: For a long time I’ve had a system and a formula that works just fine for us. Good as gold, my little set-up.

3. in senses of planned manipulation or exploitation.

(a) a situation planned to put a third party in a position of weakness, poss. to be murdered; thus the victim of that situation.

[US]Van Loan ‘Scrap Iron’ in Taking the Count 231: He’s a natural-born set-up never had a fight in his life.
[US]P. Gallico ‘The Yellow Twin’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 39/2: Hanford [...] was barnstorming the middle west, pushing over set-ups for pin money.
[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 8: Pick you a bank that’s a depository for the county [...] and you’re going to find a set-up.
[US]R. Chandler Little Sister 218: We got to have you [...] framing set-ups that wouldn’t fool a sick baby.
[UK]Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 155: To put it in a word, Cheesewright, I am armed, and the set-up, as I see it, is this.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 17: Maybe it started when he goofed on the Bertha Travis set-up.
[US]A. Hoffman Property Of (1978) 129: How do I know you’re not a part of the setup?
[US]T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 86: Setting me up! One hand inside his jacket pocket! But he sounds sincere. It’s a setup, you idiot!
[UK]J. Cameron It Was An Accident 11: They reckoned you’d come if I met you Nicky. Wouldn’t think it was like a set-up or something.
[UK]Observer Screen 6 Feb. 3: They were aware that the tour was being filmed, but unaware of hidden cameras and set-ups.
[UK]N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 9: It might be a set-up, a ready-eye by the Old Bill in the hope of ambushing a couple of blaggers.
[Aus]J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] It was a set-up [...] right from the get-go [...] the broad was double-dealing.
[Aus]D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 230: ‘The hidden camera. The quick identification. It stinks of a set-up’.

(b) in sport, a ‘fixed’ match; also used to describe a participant in such a match.

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Jan. 8/3: You could hardly make the public believe that I was not a ‘set-up,’ brought here for Terry to tumble over.
[US]D. Runyon ‘A Tale of two Fists’ XVI in Pittsburgh Press (PA) 18 May 20/1: They thought the big, awkward Dempsey would be just a ‘set-up’ for him.
[US]H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 4: Dempsey would be a set-up for me on account of him bein’ nothin’ but a big over-rated bum which had never been in a real fight.
[US]J. Tully Bruiser 44: His manager’ll think I’m a cinch now – and you can slip the word along I’m a set-up.
[US]N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 157: He never took a dive; he never had a setup or a soft touch.
[US]H. Armstrong in Heller In This Corner (1974) 207: he had never heard of me [...] and he figured I’m just another set-up.

(c) (US) a person who is easily duped, a ‘sucker’.

[US]Sioux City Jrnl (IO) 28 July 4/2: This John Public, in prize fight parlance, has been a paluka for some years. He was a set up and then some.
[US]S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 117: Who’s the natural to be beat-up and squashed [...] You’re a setup for it.
[US]F. Brookhouser Now I Lay Me Down 63: Well, that steak made me an easy setup [...] That was the first time I ever got laid.
[US]A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 83: You look like a kid [...] You’re a setup.

(d) a criminal scheme.

[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 166: Set Up.–A pre-arranged deal ; an ‘easy’ proposition ; a likely spot for a robbery.
[UK]J. Curtis They Drive by Night 275: Here’s the set-up.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[UK]Oh Boy! No. 23 6: A nice set-up – if it had worked out! Thanks to Tornado it didn’t!
[US]G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 87: I know he got the idea that somebody was on to our setup.
[UK]Guardian G2 26 Jan. 22: The NYPD took four seconds at the scene to deduce it was a set-up.

(e) an organization, often criminal.

[US]Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
H. Ellson Duke 141: We’ll have the biggest set-up around.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 14: There might even be a place in the set-up for a bright kid like Joey.
[US]J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 71: It was just a small potatoes setup.
[US]J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 267: You know Dumas. You know his whole setup.

(f) (US Und.) a scheme whereby a criminal is caught red-handed.

[US]H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 102: It was obvious to me by that time that I had been the victim of a setup.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 126: Set-up – a police trap.

4. in senses of equipment, kit.

(a) (US) a place setting in a restaurant.

[US]Van Loan ‘On Account of a Lady’ in Taking the Count 124: T-bone gives dis Clarence a set-up an’ asks him what he will have.
[US]J. Stevens ‘Logger Talk’ AS I:3 137/2: His plate, cup and saucer are his ‘set-up’.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 166: Set Up.– [...] The plate, cup and saucer and ‘tools,’ knife, fork and spoon, set at a table in readiness for a diner.
[US]Waukesha (WI) Freeman 24 Jan. 3/3: ‘Setup’ – bread, butter, water, knife, fork, etc.

(b) (US) the ice, mixer and other ingredients provided in unlicensed premises, to which patrons must bring their own alcohol, but in which they can then drink.

[US]Sun (Baltimore) 24 Dec. 11/1: If the club did not ban liquor drinking on the premises and cease serving ‘set-ups’ its lease would be in danger [OED].
[US]A.J. Liebling ‘Westbound Tanker’ in Just Enough Liebling (2004) 80: You had to buy a bottle at a package store and take it into a soft-drink joint to get a set-up.
[US]C. Himes ‘Cotton Gonna Kill Me Yet’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 37: You pays two bucks to get in this joint, fo’ bucks for a half-pint grog, two bucks for a coke setup.
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 193: Cafes are permitted to sell set-ups. Imbibers carry their own whenever they go out.
[US]E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 47: Gil had the set-ups poured out.
R. Daley Only a Game 5: ‘Brown-bagging is legal’ The PR man says, producing a pint bottle of whiskey in a paper bag. ‘The waitress will bring ice and setups’.
[US]Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 11: They sold a setup for fifty cents.

(c) the preparation of an injection of a drug.

[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 139: He moved, pouring the treasure of the spoon into a hypodermic syringe [...] ‘Setup’s on’ he managed to say.

(d) (US prison) the uniform, bedding, washing equipment etc issued to a new prisoner.

[US](con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 31: ‘Sixteen fish setups,’ orders Strunk. From cardboard boxes beneath the table the porters start pulling out Day-Glo-orange coveralls [...] gray blankets, towels, sheets, soap bars, and small plastic bottles of ‘disinfecant’ shampoo. To each pile a plastic coffee mug is added. A small plastic comb, a tube of toothpaste, and a toothbrush are dropped into the mugs.

(e) (US) the makings of a drink, e.g. whisky, ice and a chaser, served in a bar.

[US]D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 298: We asked Nita and Jennelle for ice and water and soda setups for the bottles of Junior and Count Smirn.
[US]G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 260: Darnell looked at the bourbon-and-beer setup in front of Stefanos.
[US]D. Jenkins Baja Oklahoma 119: ‘Pretty ladies attract men and sell lots of beer and setups’.
[US]I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 106: [M]ake setups and keep track of stock.

5. an arrangement.

[US](con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 82: He meets a woman [...] at one of those setups they have for guys on R&R.

6. the background, the establishing concept, e.g. to a joke, an anecdote.

[US]S. Hart Once Upon a Prime 18: [T]he humorous limerick form has to get from setup to payoff in just five lines.