trump up sth/trump sth up
— phrasal verb with trump uk/trʌmp/usverb [ T ]
to give or use false information so that someone will be accused of doing something wrong and punished:
The accusation, she said, was trumped up in order to get rid of her.
The whole story was trumped up by our competitors.
trumped up
also trumped-up
She maintains that the case is based on trumped-up charges.