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fit up

B2 mixed separable transitive
In simple words

To put everything needed in a place — or, in British English, to get someone in trouble for something they didn't do.

Literal meaning: To make something 'fit' (ready) by putting things up or in place.

Meanings

1 B2 neutral

To equip or furnish a space with everything it needs.

"They fitted up the garage as a professional recording studio."

Grammar: separable
2 C1 idiomatic slang

(British slang) To falsely incriminate an innocent person, especially by planting evidence.

"He claimed the police had fitted him up and that the drugs were never his."

"He said he'd been fitted up by corrupt officers."

— The Guardian, reporting on the Birmingham Six miscarriage of justice cases, 1990s
Grammar: separable
Usage notes

The 'equip' sense is neutral and interchangeable with 'fit out'. The 'falsely incriminate' sense is British slang, informal to colloquial, and strongly associated with crime dramas and tabloid journalism. The noun 'fit-up' or 'stitch-up' is common.

Commonly used with

suspect kitchen workshop innocent man shop office

Forms

Base
fit up
I/you/we/they
3rd person
fits up
he/she/it
Past simple
fited up
yesterday
Past participle
fited up
have + pp
-ing form
fiting up
continuous

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Synonyms

frame set up equip furnish incriminate stitch up

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