cough v.
(orig. US)1. (also cough it) to confess, to inform.
Sandburrs 81: Not one of ’em coughs on me, an’ me name ain’t never in it. | ||
Bucky O’Connor (1910) 114: Cough it out, Mike. | ||
Gay-cat 62: Thet guy Blondy had coughed on me. He had got me trapped. | ||
Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 146: ‘What you want from me.’ [...] ‘A confession. How you worked the oracle with Jennifer Carmichael. Just cough the lot, that’s all I want.’. | ||
Spike Island (1981) 96: He’s not going to cough for the first half-hour, so I leave him in the cells for a bit. | ||
Lowspeak. | ||
Raiders 254: He coughed the lot about the hoover robberies. | ||
Truth 72: He put the plug in his ear, found the place on the player. …listen, I’ve had a bloke, he’s offering … Coughing. | ||
Killing Pool 116: From the moment Kalan coughed about Misha things have gone from bad to worse. | ||
Bloody January 195: ‘That fat bastard in there came in and coughed’. |
2. to hand over, to give, esp. money.
Tales of the Ex-Tanks 256: I coughed a dollar for a seat. | ||
Down the Line 43: In the annals of the road no one could look back to the proud day when Sledgeheimer had coughed. | ||
Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xi: Loosen up, cough, give down, come to, kick in. You’ve got to donate. | ||
Bluey & Curley 26 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] You’ll cough that half quid....You cow. | ||
It Was An Accident 15: Housing Benefit out to cough most of that. |
In phrases
see sense 1 above.
see cough up v. (1)
to talk about.
Gay-cat 41: Yuh ain’t seen my friend so I won’t cough on him no more. |
see cough up v. (2)
see cough up v. (2)
see cough up v. (1)
see separate entry.