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 of cough up

• relinquish
• render
• surrender
• deliver

Examples of cough up in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Miami’s 12th straight loss was a 5-3 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Sunday, a game in which the Marlins led 3-1 through seven innings before reliever Lake Bachar coughed up four runs on five hits. — Johnny Flores Jr, New York Times, 26 July 2026

Digging deeper, Ober has surrendered eight of 13 home runs this year to 132 batters faced on the road, including coughing up six to 73 lefties. — Josh Shepardson, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026

Common symptoms include coughing, chest pain, coughing up blood, weakness or fatigue, and fevers. — Christa Swanson, CBS News, 14 July 2026

Peterson shortly after coughed up his eighth turnover with 10 seconds to play and Utah up 100-97. — Gary Bedore, Kansas City Star, 5 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for cough up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup