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

• 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

Or the bullpen coughing up an insurance run in the eighth inning, and last year’s hero, Luke Weaver, not even pitching because his season-long struggles had reached their nadir, scaring the Yankees away from using him. —Brendan Kuty, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025

Patriots recover Rohan Nadkarni The Bills just coughed up the ball for the second time tonight, and this time the Patriots recovered in the red zone. —Andrew Greif, NBC news, 6 Oct. 2025

Swayman, playing his first game of the preseason, coughed up the puck behind the net to Bobby Brink, who got it to Tyson Foerster. —Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 30 Sep. 2025

Again, special teams blunders set the defense up in poor position, but the defense ultimately coughed up big gains on the ground. —Mike Kaye september 28, Charlotte Observer, 28 Sep. 2025

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