Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to plan in advance, esp. a crime or some form of deception, to propose a particular place for burglary.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 260: put up to suggest to another, the means of committing a depredation, or effecting any other business is termed, putting him up to it.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 149: Mechanics or others have come at the secrets of ‘good booty and the means of the easiest entry,’ to which they put up [...] their palls.
1822		Egan Life and Adventures of Samuel Hayward 116: He had linked himself with a set of professional house-breakers, and engaged to put them up, that is, to furnish them with such information as would enable them to enter the house.
1851		‘Greenhorn’ [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 50/2: [He] charged that Bristol Bill was the individual who ‘put up the game’ by which he was defrauded.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 70: put up Information given to thieves by persons in the employ of parties to be robbed, such as servants, clerks, porters, etc., whereby the thief is facilitated in his operations.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 97/2: Joe was to ask him to ‘put up’ the warehouse where he was employed and he would do the ‘job’.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 262: He used to get into situation as butler &c., on false characters, to sound a place with a view of ‘putting up as good thing,’ in the shape of a robbery by others.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 7: Put Up - To plan out for a robbery or a swindle.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 314: It may be interesting to describe how a burglary is ‘put up’.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 42: Jack had either spotted the place, or it had been ‘put up’ to him.
1912		B. Pain Stories without Tears in J. Manchon Le Slang (1923) 45: I knows yer puts up jobs, and passes along the stuff.
1929		C.G. Gordon Crooks of the Und. 199: These are those who ‘put up’ ninety per cent. of the successful jewel hauls of which one is continually reading in the newspapers.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 34: He had a blag lined up but did not fancy the team he had put it up to.

2. to propose, to put forward.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1838		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. Apr. 595: If ounly I could lay hould of a rope, I’d put Muster Shauginsea up to a move or two.
1852		F. Smedley Lewis Arundel 32: Some of the fools about here wanted me to put up for the country if he popped off, but I am not going to thrust my neck into the collar to please any of them.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 3: I’ll put yer up to a dodge.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 9/2: It is very seldom, when you call at a newspaper office, that you do see the editor. A presentable person is generally ‘put up’ in his stead, while the ‘real Simon Pure’ is fast asleep in the coal-hole. We substituted, in this office, […] the man who ground the ink. And he took well, too.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 11: He’s been fretful about his whiskey, Cherokee has, – puttin’ it up she don’t taste right.
1904		Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 17–18: Hay was getting all he wanted of the girl and her mother found it out and she put up the job on him.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 50: Put him up? For my clubs?
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 8: Put up: Suggest a case, or to give information to the police.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 29: What’d you say, if someone put it up to you, mate?
1961		W.R. Burnett Round the Clock at Volari’s 64: ‘Well, if you ever change your mind [about taking up golf], Ole Hoss,’ Andy said, magnanimously, ‘let me know. I’ll put you up for the club’.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 123: Not that he’s to put the story up.
1990		in D. Campbell That Was Business, This Is Personal 16: Always you were sniffing around and people were putting things up to you and you were looking at them.
2000		Guardian G2 17 Feb. 7: I wonder how many names he’s put up to get over there.

3. (N.Z./US Und.) to hold up and rob.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 171/2: Put up, v. [...] 3. (Obs.) To rob at gun point.

4. to pay out money in advance, esp. on a bet or for the purchase of drugs.

1858		W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room I i: Say, Squire, you wouldn’t mind putting up for drinks before you go, would you?
1876		‘Dan de Quille’ Big Bonanza (1947) 269: The restaurant keepers [...] furnish each other lists of all swindling customers, which makes it no easy matter for one of the ‘dead-beats’ to get a ‘square meal,’ unless he first ‘puts up’ his coin.
1886		J. Miller Destruction of Gotham 111: You will have to put up for the tobacco.
1893–4		H. Lawson ‘Stiffner and Jim’ in Roderick (1972) 124: We put up about nine bob’s worth of drinks that night.
1899		H. Hamblen Bucko Mate 27: He generously offered to ‘put up’ for me.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 12: It ain’t a square deal to make as hot a ward worker as you put up the stuff every time you want to pull off a play.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 61: If I could induce Tim Sullivan and his friends to ‘put up’ a thousand dollars, he would run the paper as a Tammany organ.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 323: Sloping off with his five quid without putting up a pint of stuff like a man.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 198: You get Red and Gallagher in, and Martinez and me’ll put up.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 185: He was broke when he found it and didn’t have the connections that could put up big money fast.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 53: If I don’t put up money now, there won’t be any publishing.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hollywood Fuck Pad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 217: Ten bucks that he’s got another name. Come on, put up.

5. to explain, to ‘put in the picture’.

1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 18 Feb. 7/4: I know every ‘fake’ in the monkery, and can put you up to them all.
1909		H. James High Bird Act II: yule: I’m sure I don’t know [...] mrs gracedew: Then you must let me put you up!

6. (US) as ext. of sense 4, to provide money to a third party.

1882

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Nov. 2/1: After all the trouble [...] he still clings to her and has been ‘putting up’ for her while she was living on the sly with a rough and ignorant lover [...] He ‘puts up’ thirty dollars a week for the siren who acknowledges another liaison.

7. (orig. Aus.) to set aside.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Aug. 14/4: [W]hen these people want poultry themselves, they ‘put it up’ for weeks, and corn-feed it. They don’t take risks.
2005		W.D. Myers Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 167: I took a bite out of the tuna sandwich, but I wasn’t in the mood for it and put it up.
2020		L. Lungaro The 3-0 77: ‘Listen, if it’s some drugs in here, just give it to us, just tell us. We’ll put it up for you,’ [Officer] Rayam said.

8. (N.Z.) to report a crime to the authorities.

1963

B. Crump ‘One of Us’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 120: ‘Did they put him up?’ ‘No, they didn’t put him up [...] But Dan did a lot of free fencing for that bloke. Took him about six months work off the price of the cattle he’d knocked off.’.

9. see put on v. (1)