This Q was inspired by a PBS documentary about Broadway musicals I was watching last night. “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” was described as a send up of 1960s corporate culture.
I got to thinking, “send up” is an odd term. I know what it means, I just wondered where it came from.
If I may say so, that is among the most worthless “Word of the Day” I’ve ever seen. (That’s not a jab at you, Exapno, but at that site.) They admittedly answered the OP’s question, but in most cases people would be looking for the overall origin of the phrase, both in its noun and verb forms.
So where does the VERB phrase “to send up” come from? It seems that the OP might know, what with his/her emphasis on “noun”. Now I’m curious! 
Maybe it is similar to the use of ‘wind up’ for teasing. Where that brings to mind winding someone up, like a clock, to a point of tense frustration, maybe to ‘send up’ refers to metaphorically sending the victim up a blind alley, or on a wild goose chase in an irritating manner.
Just WAGging.
The OED offers very little more by way of enlightenment other than the first known citation.
I suspect the origin to this one can be marked, “file with the whole nine yards”.
Nope, not me. When I specified the noun meaning, I meant as opposed to the literal, *non-theatrical * verb meaning.
Yeah, I was disappointed too. But it was the only answer that came up.
Agreed. Nominalization of noun phrases is very common in English, cf. the unrelated “send off”.