Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to provide well for someone; to satisfy emotionally.

1865		‘Artemus Ward’ Among the Mormons in Complete Works (1922) 252: Still believin’ that the Goddess of Liberty is about as well sot up with as any young lady in distress could expect to be, I am.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 249: I’ve ’ad a good win, an’ we’re set up fer life.
1932		W.R. Burnett Giant Swing 49: ‘I’m going to hit the hay as soon as I get home [...] A good long sleep might set me up’.
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 8: It set me up to have a chick like her. It gave me a personal pride to have her for my girl.
1961		W.R. Burnett Round the Clock at Volari’s 78: ‘ That weak little old drink really set me up. I haven’t felt this good for months.’ .
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Set you up a treat for the future.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 173: Set you up when you get back.

2. (US, also set them up to, set up to) to treat.

1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: The belief of the party is that he has ‘snakes in his boots’ and by way of getting rid of them he is told to ‘set ’em up’ or ‘whoop ’er up again’.
1890		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 24 Sept. 2/1: Foote insisted that Brock should set up the drinks. They went into the saloon.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Oct. 4/4: If a working-man feels that a pot of beer would do him good, he [...] asks ten or twenty bar loafers to have one too, and at his expense. This process [...] is termed ‘Setting ’em up’ or ‘Shouting’.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 15: Now, before I get back to them young trash, who’ll set up agin?
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 74: Johnny Black set ’em up to the Professor right in the middle of the song, and the Professor bowed his regards, blew the froth off his beer, drank it, and lit a cigarette without losing a note.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 58: set up, v. To treat, to entertain with food and drink.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 4/5: It wasn’t an altogether satisfactory way of ‘setting them up’.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 50: Well, are you going to set us up to a couple of bottles, or have we got to pay for them?
1926		Z.N. Hurston Sweat (1995) 960: We all is steady customers an’ you aint set us up in a long time.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 91: He’d take out our lieutenant and her baby and set them up to supper and drinks.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 131: I clipped a sucker for quite a roll and fell almost out of sight. / I took a stroll down the line and set ’em up to all the boys.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 395: Gloria often made a ten- or twenty-dollar tip and he always spent this, setting up the house.

3. to place a potential victim in a position of weakness, esp. a target for murder.

1930		D. Ahearn Confessions of a Gunman 209: If you got plenty of money, you can set him up in a cabaret.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 241: You set him up so they could kill him.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 240: I’m the one who set Joey Doyle up for the knock-off.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 94: When he left [the bar] theyd lush him. Sometimes Tralala would set him up.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 121: How can a fellow get even with one of the boys that set him up?
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 269: Don’t worry, you ain’t gettin’ set up.
1992		V. Headley Yardie 32: One way or another, they would try to set him up.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 129: What did he say about getting a hiding after he’d set poor little Warren up.
2001		(con. 1990s) J. Miller One of the Guys 61: Julie said her friends in rival gangs always tried to get her to ’set each other up,’ yet they trusted her not to set them up.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 204: That’s when it hit me: I’d been set up.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 255: He was still struggling with the idea of his ex-wife setting him up.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] He sussed out the surveillance and set me up.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 7: I’m no getting the vibe that I’m being set up.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 125: [C]unts wantin tae set yi up n steal yir stuff.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 159: [S]etting up the original criminal for a sting.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 213: Ah wa di bumbaclart you ah chat bout set up.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 253: ‘Someone is after us. Setting us up’.

4. of police, to concoct evidence or create a situation whereby an innocent person is charged with a crime.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 189/1: Set up, v. [...] 3. To frame; to lure into a trap; to give false information as a means of entrapping a criminal.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 237: I might could set up Marty Steel for you.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 81: They set me up, Chilly. they flat set me up.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 159: He literally set you up.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘May the Force be with You’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He threatened to plant something on you, and set you up for a bit of bird.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 196: set up: to frame someone; or to set up a situation in order to catch someone out.
1993		Dr Dre ‘187’ 🎵 And he’s lookin’ for the cops who set him up in ’86.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 286: It dawn that I been set up, that maybe I was set up the same 9 month ago.

5. to intoxicate.

1959

W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 101: Whiskey didn’t set you up the way reefers did.