cough up
To reluctantly or unwillingly give.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I had to cough up fifty dollars for the ticket.”
“You need to cough up the remote so I can watch my show.”
“She coughs up the truth only when the police ask her direct questions.”
“The company finally coughed up the money they owed after the lawyer sent them a formal letter.”
“My brother finally had to cough up the car keys after I reminded him that it was my turn to drive to work.”
“The landlord refused to fix the heater until the tenants coughed up the extra fee for the building repairs.”
“Even though he lost the bet fairly, he still looks miserable every time he has to cough up the prize money.”
“Despite his deep resentment toward the new tax laws, he eventually coughed up the required payment to avoid further legal complications.”
disputed origin
From Middle English *coughen up*, a compound of *cough* + *up*. The figurative sense of surrendering money or information was perhaps influenced by a phonetic or conceptual association with *coffers*, though the connection remains a matter of linguistic speculation rather than settled record.
Last updated August 10, 2026