as in to spend
to hand over or use up in payment
we shelled out an obscene amount of money for those concert tickets
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shell out
The news raised questions over the significant sums that American tech companies are shelling out on AI.
—
Ashley Capoot,samantha Subin, CNBC, 24 Sep. 2025
Roku then picked up the rights for a spartan $10 million—about a third of what Peacock shelled out in each year of its contract.
—Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 24 Sep. 2025
Both of these should be included when shelling out that kind of cash, in my opinion.
—New Atlas, 19 Sep. 2025
By contrast, just 70 miles west, expect to shell out $50 to $125 for samples, and good luck getting in without a reservation.
—David Dickstein, Oc Register, 17 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shell out
Ashley Capoot,samantha Subin, CNBC, 24 Sep. 2025
Roku then picked up the rights for a spartan $10 million—about a third of what Peacock shelled out in each year of its contract.
—Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 24 Sep. 2025
Both of these should be included when shelling out that kind of cash, in my opinion.
—New Atlas, 19 Sep. 2025
By contrast, just 70 miles west, expect to shell out $50 to $125 for samples, and good luck getting in without a reservation.
—David Dickstein, Oc Register, 17 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for shell out
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shell out
Verb
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That year, the board hired Pat Gelsinger, an engineer who had spent 30 years at Intel before leaving it for other companies and eventually running VMware.—
Lila MacLellan,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
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Elordi spent up to 10 hours per session in the makeup chair and worked 18-hour days in full prosthetics.—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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One suggested paying for outside services, such as privatized tutoring.—
Megan O’Matz,
ProPublica,
8 Oct. 2025
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Most other federal workers, however, do not get paid, even if they are deemed essential and required to work.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
8 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Few laws lay out the extent of their accountability and certainly not in Guatemala.—
Jasmin Malik Chua,
Sourcing Journal,
3 Oct. 2025
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Instead, Barrett stressed the importance of collegiality among the justices on the nation’s highest court and how her law clerks weed through the bevy of amicus briefs the court receives, only passing along to her those that lay out legal arguments rather than policy ones.—
Kaitlyn Schallhorn,
Oc Register,
10 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shell out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shell%20out. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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