cough up
English
Etymology
Verb
cough up (third-person singular simple present coughs up, present participle coughing up, simple past and past participle coughed up)
- to expel from the lungs, throat, etc. by coughing
- He was coughing up blood.
- (idiomatic, transitive, informal) to reluctantly or unwillingly give
- (idiomatic) to lose a competition by one's own mistakes, usually near the end of the contest
- That team had the game won, but they coughed it up in the end.
- (transitive, idiomatic) To spill, to fumble
- 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France[1]:
- England had never before come back to win from a margin of more than 12 points, and the errors continued to come thick and fast as Tom Croft became the latest to cough up the ball.
Synonyms
Translations
to expel by coughing
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to pay money
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to lose by one's own mistakes
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to spill, fumble
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