as in to relinquish
to give (something) over to the control or possession of another usually under duress
finally got my brother to cough up the dough he owed me
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Recent Examples of cough up
Tony appealed to the state to force the county to cough up more money.
—
Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel, 11 June 2026
The Knicks coughed up the ball 13 times, sometimes unforced.
—Fred Katz, New York Times, 10 June 2026
Miguel Rojas moved from second base to third then to the mound in the ninth inning and coughed up home runs to both Brett Sullivan and Kyle Karros.
—Doug Padilla, Oc Register, 27 May 2026
Causes of death and identification of the deceased Busch collapsed Wednesday while testing in a Chevrolet simulator, prompting a 911 call describing shortness of breath, high fever and coughing up blood.
—Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for cough up
Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel, 11 June 2026
The Knicks coughed up the ball 13 times, sometimes unforced.
—Fred Katz, New York Times, 10 June 2026
Miguel Rojas moved from second base to third then to the mound in the ninth inning and coughed up home runs to both Brett Sullivan and Kyle Karros.
—Doug Padilla, Oc Register, 27 May 2026
Causes of death and identification of the deceased Busch collapsed Wednesday while testing in a Chevrolet simulator, prompting a 911 call describing shortness of breath, high fever and coughing up blood.
—Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for cough up
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cough up
Verb
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The military relinquished its remaining ownership stake in the 1990s.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
10 June 2026
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The compromise is mainly symbolic since FCAS is a generic name for such systems and not unique to this plan, but officials have been seeking a formula allowing Macron to relinquish the core fighter without having to declare the whole project dead.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
9 June 2026
Verb
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Prior to that, Copilot generated its response using raw HTML, which is temporarily rendered in the browser DOM.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
16 June 2026
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Paramedics responded and rendered aid to the man before pronouncing him dead at the scene.—
Kendrick Calfee,
Kansas City Star,
16 June 2026
Verb
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Will Klein surrendered a seventh-inning single to Jackson that sent two baserunners, including one inherited from Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer, across the plate.—
Maddie Lee,
Los Angeles Times,
20 June 2026
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An armed suspect surrendered to the California Highway Patrol after an hours-long pursuit through Los Angeles County.—
Matthew Rodriguez,
CBS News,
19 June 2026
Verb
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The verdict was delivered amid difficult personal circumstances for Mette-Marit, Hoiby’s mother, who needs a lung transplant for pulmonary fibrosis.—
Reuters,
CNN Money,
15 June 2026
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Half is now based on volume of water pumped, delivering an incentive to use less water.—
Allen Best,
Denver Post,
14 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cough up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cough%20up. Accessed 20 Jun. 2026.
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