trump up

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trump up (third-person singular simple present trumps up, present participle trumping up, simple past and past participle trumped up)

1. (idiomatic) To create falsely, to fabricate (particularly applied to accusations, (legal) charges or evidence).

   His electoral "campaign" to date has included attempts to trump up criminal charges against his opponents.

   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 67:

     Those of the men who had swapped horses with passing drovers, without the exchange of receipts, were busy all afternoon trumping up witnesses.

2. (idiomatic) Heavily publicise, promote or market a product.

   We don't often trump up products purely for the virtue of being "new".

• trumped-up