Dictionary

cough up en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English coughen up, equivalent to cough + up. Sense 2.1 was perhaps influenced by coffers of money. (to lose by one's own mistakes): Compare typologically Russian проду́ть (prodútʹ), профу́кать (profúkatʹ).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To expel from the lungs, throat, stomach, etc. by coughing.
   • He was coughing up blood.
   • He was coughing up a lung.
2. (idiomatic, informal, transitive) To reluctantly or unwillingly give. ▸ Of money: to pay or disburse reluctantly.
   • "[…] Usually businessmen. Married, middle-aged guys who'll cough up fifty bucks to smoke my pole." 2006, K. M. Soehnlein, You Can Say You Knew Me When, page 240:
   • Thanks to Jeeves I was not going to be called on to cough up several thousand quid. 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Pearls Mean Tears”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 40:
   • Do you think he'll be able to cough up the three grand by Tuesday?
   • I have mentioned before how impressed I was when I used a Glasgow suburban train late one Saturday night, when I reached Queen Street the barriers were closed and I had to cough up a princely couple of quid before being allowed through. 2025 November 12, Christian Wolmar, “A proper BTP presence is worth every penny”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 41:
3. (idiomatic, informal, transitive) To reluctantly or unwillingly give. ▸ Of other objects: to hand over, give.
   • “Let me have the report by four o’clock.” “Nothing for us, I suppose?” said the elder woman, with a smile. “You wait, my dear. If we get twenty-five pounds fine it has got to go somewhere—Police Fund, of course, but there may be something over. Anyhow, you go and cough it up and then we shall see.” 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which the Notorious Criminal Gets what the British Law Considers to be His Deserts”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 118:
   • By the time you get back the men will all be striking out for the fire, and we ’ll break for the house and collar the dollars. Everybody cough up what matches he ’s got. 1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 324:
   • Cough it up, Cooper. 2013, The Big Bang Theory, season 6, episode 14
4. (idiomatic, informal, intransitive, slang, transitive) To reluctantly or unwillingly give. ▸ To confess; to give up information.
5. (idiomatic) To lose a competition by one's own mistakes, usually near the end of the contest.
   • That team had the game won, but they coughed it up in the end.
6. (idiomatic, transitive) To spill, to fumble.
   • England had never before come back to win from a margin of more than 12 points, and the errors continued to come thick and fast as Tom Croft became the latest to cough up the ball. 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France:

Forms

Coordinates

put down · come down with · come up with

Relateds

expectorate

Synonyms

fork over · shell out · fork out

Translations (40)

pl wybulić (to pay money) · hu kiperkál (to pay money) · fr lâcher (to pay money) · hu kipenget (to pay money) · cs navalit (to pay money) · ota بایلمق (to pay money) · fr cracher (to pay money) · fi hassata (to spill, fumble) · pl odkasłać (to expel by coughing) · fi pulittaa (to pay money) · fr cracher (to expel by coughing) · pl schrzanić (to lose by one's own mistakes) · ru вы́ложить (to pay money) · ru раскоше́литься (to pay money) · fi tyriä (to spill, fumble) · cs vyklopit (to pay money) · pl spartaczyć (to lose by one's own mistakes) · es aflojar (to pay money) · ru отка́шливать (to expel by coughing) · pl schrzaniać (to lose by one's own mistakes) · de aushusten (to expel by coughing) · fr se planter (to lose by one's own mistakes) · fi hassata (to lose by one's own mistakes) · pl odkasływać (to expel by coughing) · ru раскоше́ливаться (to pay money) · es desembolsar (to pay money) · pl partaczyć (to lose by one's own mistakes) · de blechen (to pay money) · pl zabulić (to pay money) · ru выкла́дывать (to pay money) · hu kicsenget (to pay money) · de herausrücken (to pay money) · fi tyriä (to lose by one's own mistakes) · cs vysolit (to pay money) · pt arrotar (to pay money) · fi yskiä (to expel by coughing) · pl kićkać się (to spill, fumble) · es expectorar (to expel by coughing) · pl bulić (to pay money) · es apoquinar (to pay money)