Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also cough it up, cough to) to confess, to reveal (information); as vtr. to betray.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 56: I cough up to you because I know that you’re a good fellow.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 11: It’s the same way with the gun* himself. Course he’s got to cough up to the coppers ev’ry now an’ then, but that’s fair enough. [*Thief].
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 213: Who’s afraid? Cough it up and show York you’re game.
1912		D. Lowrie My Life in Prison 280: If I was you I’d cough up about kicking in the P.O.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 7: Then what is it? Buck Mulligan asked impatiently. Cough it up.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 42: He broke into laughter. ‘That was a funny show!’ ‘Well, corf it up, then’.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 205: I’ll tell you somethin’ [...] somethin’ I never coughed up to the D.A.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 112: Cough up, mug, cough up.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 52: The greaser coughs up that one of his shooters-in-training is missing.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 50: Max Peltz coughed up large.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 41: So you better cough to all the screwings you’ve done, OK?
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 244: They think for a minute they’ll go away, they’ll cough up every wiseguy they know.

2. (also cough out, cough over) to hand over, to give, esp. money, also as n. a donation.

1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 37: De Duchess never let up on me till I had coughed up dose twenty-five plunks.
1900		T.J. Hains Mr Trunnell Mate of the Ship ‘Pirate’ Ch. i: They wanted me to cough up stuff for the whole crowd. But nary a cough. One or two drinks is about all I can stand.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 24 Feb. 3/5: A deep dig down into the jeans of the boss oof-snatcher of Zion City and a heavy cough up of dough.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 38: It made an awful hit with Uncle Peter to see me cough up those two bones.
1915		E. Pound letter 6 Sept in Read Letters to James Joyce (1968) 42: I’m glad the committee has coughed up something.
1929		C.G. Gordon Crooks of the Und. 207: The great firms of assessors are often quite aware that they are being defrauded upon a gigantic scale, but ‘cough up’ and say nothing.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 9: This slip shows four thousand eight hundred and sixty-two dollars. Now cough it up.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 161: I decided I wouldn’t cough up the sugar just then.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 162: Bellairs coughs up pronto.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 99: I had managed to get Tom to cough up the price of the [...] serial.
1957		H. Ellison ‘Buy Me that Blade’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 101: Come on. Cough it over now.
1958		Mad mag. Sept.–Oct. 19: He coughed up the $24.00 the minute I gave him the envelope.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 209: We know he’s got it, and we’re going to make him cough it up.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 159: No doubt Ron would have his mother cough up some money.
1985		J. Morrison Share House Blues 49: ‘Look, Neptune, you Old Man must be rolling,’ says Marcus. ‘Go and ask him for some. Let him cough up a bit of the ill-gotten for once’.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 70: She was a top woman, and drank top shelf! I coughed up for a case of 1978 Grange.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 207: The very same day Mick The Muso rocked everyone [...] by coughing up cash for the Selmer.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 450: She does everything possible to make the man cough out a few dollars.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 42: Whether you cough up or not, the label goes ahead.
2000		Indep. Rev. 2 May 7: Companies would have to cough up £3,000 a year for parking spaces.
2005		E. Weiner Big Boat to Bye-Bye 184: ‘Cough up the pelf and we’ll mark it closed’.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘You know something but you’re not going to tell me unless I cough up the cash’.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 36: This boy’s coughed up, and eh seems tickled.
2018		R. O’Neill ‘Ocker’ in The Drover’s Wives (2019) 181: He’d coughed up for a buggy.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 39: The scummy COs wouldn’t cough up any of her possessions.

3. (Aus.) to speak.

1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 250: Aht with it! [...] Cough it up, duckie!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 438: Cough it up, man. Get it out in bits.
1939		R. Chandler Big Sleep 84: Cough up and be sensible.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 66: Nothing keeps. Come here. [...] Cough it up. What’s under your mind?

4. to vomit; usu. in phrs.

1944		Slanguage Dict. Mod. Amer. Sl. 11: cough up one’s cookies, to vomit.
1959		Deak & Deak Dict. Colorful French Slanguage 62: To vomit, to ‘shoot the cat’, to puke, to cough up one’s cookies.