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

The streamer is coughing up some $150 million over the next three years for the rights to carry a total of nine sessions of baseball, a bare bones roster that includes the annual opener, the Field of Dream games formerly hosted by Fox and the Home Run Derby. —Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 1 Apr. 2026

With Doval on a short leash, Blackburn entered and eventually coughed up the winning run. —Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 31 Mar. 2026

The Angels coughed up a 6-4 lead and took a 9-7 loss to the Houston Astros on Sunday that left them with a split of the four-game set in Houston. —Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026

To avoid the lines, customers (including first-time private fliers) are now coughing up large sums to avoid TSA altogether, sometimes to the tune of $34,000, Bloomberg reported. —Nicole Hoey, Robb Report, 30 Mar. 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