cough up

verb

coughed up; coughing up; coughs up

transitive verb

1

: hand over, deliver

cough up the money

2

: to lose possession of (a ball or puck) during a game

the quarterback coughed up the ball

Synonyms

• cede
• deliver
• give up
• hand over
• lay down
• relinquish
• render
• surrender
• turn in
• turn over
• yield

Examples of cough up in a Sentence

finally got my brother to cough up the dough he owed me

Recent Examples on the Web

Then, because Blood couldn’t cough up Cheese’s name, the king orders the deaths of all the ratcatchers in the city; all are strung up outside the castle. —Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 23 June 2024

That is, provided its U.S. customers could first cough up the exorbitant price tag. —Byryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 17 June 2024

Key among those is phase 2 of the Second Ave. subway project, for which $3.4 billion in federal grant money is expected — if the MTA can cough up $4.3 billion to cover the rest of the $7.7 billion project. —Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 10 June 2024

Chipotle’s comparable sales fell 20% year over year following the outbreak, and the company coughed up $25 million in 2020, the largest-ever fine in a federal food safety case. —Alicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 3 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined at sense 1