Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1890		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].
1938		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.

1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 25: I’m fixin’ a set-up with him for you.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 3: If you don’t care for the set-up, toss on the rags and scram.
1941		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 ...
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 33: This was supposed to be a Commie setup.
1962		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.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 88: This is quite a nice set-up.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 117: You’ve seen the set-up.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 15: Paradise might be a setup like this, Shade thought.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 30: Noton was right about the disco set-up. It was a local radio station.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 22: It was also a nice setup for the stickup boys.
2000		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.

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

1913–14		Van Loan ‘Scrap Iron’ in Taking the Count 231: He’s a natural-born set-up never had a fight in his life.
1928		P. Gallico ‘The Yellow Twin’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 39/2: Hanford [...] was barnstorming the middle west, pushing over set-ups for pin money.
1937		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.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 218: We got to have you [...] framing set-ups that wouldn’t fool a sick baby.
1954		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.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 17: Maybe it started when he goofed on the Bertha Travis set-up.
1977		A. Hoffman Property Of (1978) 129: How do I know you’re not a part of the setup?
1987		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!
1996		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.
2000		Observer Screen 6 Feb. 3: They were aware that the tour was being filmed, but unaware of hidden cameras and set-ups.
2007		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.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] It was a set-up [...] right from the get-go [...] the broad was double-dealing.

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

1903		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.
1919		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.
1927		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.
1937		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.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 157: He never took a dive; he never had a setup or a soft touch.
1973		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’.

1928		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.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 117: Who’s the natural to be beat-up and squashed [...] You’re a setup for it.
1955		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.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 83: You look like a kid [...] You’re a setup.

(d) a criminal scheme.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 166: Set Up.–A pre-arranged deal ; an ‘easy’ proposition ; a likely spot for a robbery.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 275: Here’s the set-up.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1954		Oh Boy! No. 23 6: A nice set-up – if it had worked out! Thanks to Tornado it didn’t!
1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 87: I know he got the idea that somebody was on to our setup.
2000		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.

1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1949		H. Ellson Duke 141: We’ll have the biggest set-up around.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 14: There might even be a place in the set-up for a bright kid like Joey.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 71: It was just a small potatoes setup.
1999		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.

1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 102: It was obvious to me by that time that I had been the victim of a setup.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 126: Set-up – a police trap.

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

1915		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.
1925		J. Stevens ‘Logger Talk’ AS I:3 137/2: His plate, cup and saucer are his ‘set-up’.
1931		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.
1940		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.

1930		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].
1942		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.
1944		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.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 193: Cafes are permitted to sell set-ups. Imbibers carry their own whenever they go out.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 47: Gil had the set-ups poured out.
1967		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’.
1976		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.

1952

(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.

2002

(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.

1998		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.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 260: Darnell looked at the bourbon-and-beer setup in front of Stefanos.
1981		D. Jenkins Baja Oklahoma 119: ‘Pretty ladies attract men and sell lots of beer and setups’.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 106: [M]ake setups and keep track of stock.