Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also come up) to hand something over; to pay up money, esp. reluctantly.

1878		A.F. Mulford Fighting Indians 17: The said proprietor would come across with a bite and drink.
1900		Sporting Times 3 Mar. 5/4: He wants a lot of paying before he will do any work. Now then, Strike-a-Light, come up, can’t you.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 182: I’ll have to ast yuh to come acrost with sumpin’ to-day, seein’ as my own rent’s due.
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 212: A ‘Zoner’ called an I.C.C. steward and complained that his waiter did not serve him reasonably: ‘Well,’ sneered the steward, ‘I guess you didn’t come across?’.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 57: He dilated upon Satan’s wrath at Wrennie for not ‘coming across’ with ten dollars for a bribe.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Father Who Jumped In’ in Ade’s Fables 84: Daughter alone could induce him to un buckle, and melt, and jar loose, and come across, and kick in, and sting the Check-Book.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 11: Come across. [...] Presently she handed him two bills which he stuffed into his waistcoat pocket.
1937		Duckett & Staple ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 6 Mar. 7/1: Anyone uptown who does come across with protection money without first putting up some kick is downright foolish.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 57: She would ask this geezer for half a quid. If he come across she’d be able to buy a new pair of cami-knicks.
1945		(con. 1923) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 49: Did he come across?
1959		Mad mag. Apr. 36: The heel didn’t come across with the mink he promised, so I plugged him!
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 26: Cowboy had been known to take the money without coming across with the stuff.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 59: The idiot wanted frills, not a straight-out bang; then he didn’t come across.
1993		M. Dibdin Dying of the Light 22: I was unfortunately unable to persuade her to come across here and now.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 176: I thought she was about to come across with something, then she suddenly left.

2. to acquiesce, to do what is wanted.

1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 131: come across, v. To make concessions (usually pecuniary). ‘If the old man don’t come across, I’ll quit him.’.
1913		Sun (NY) 27 July 40/2: A District Attorney put on all the squeeze he could to get a squawk out of the boob. He wouldn’t come across.
1920		F. Packard White Moll xviii: We gave the Pug two hours of solitary confinement to think it over and come across.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘Why don’t you stop that, Teeny, and come across?’.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 220: I should, as a man of honour and sensibility, have no choice but to come across and kick in.
1954		J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 80: Bascom would have to come across.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 57: I’ve watched you come and go every day, but waiting for you to come across is for the birds.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 38: No informer worth a rub was going to come across for a tenner or even a fifty.

3. to deliver.

1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 154: She had not come across in any Particular.
1927		Nichols & Tully Twenty Below Act II: Now then, come across!
1958		M. Allingham Hide My Eyes (1960) 211: Did he come across?
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 53: I got to come across with a sermon on the morrow.

4. to surrender sexually.

1918		Morgan & McCarron ‘I’m Glad My Daddy’s in a Uniform’ 🎵 He’s some cave-man when his heart is warm; / he wears YMCA on his uniform of blue. / That means you must come across—now what can I do?
1921		R. McAlmon Hasty Bunch 237: They’d go so far and no further and then [...] say that maybe they’d come across another night.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 318: A broad won’t come across and a guy gets hot for her, so he marries her to get it.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 19: If you go out with me you’ve got to come across.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 13: My cousin, who looked like a cow’s arse, wouldn’t even come across.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 41: He’ll turn some square little chick on for the first time and she’ll come across.
1975		J. Carr Bad (1995) 45: If you come across for me, I’ll tell ’em you’re all right so they won’t fuck with ya.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 8: They don’t even bother to get your Amex authorised before coming across with the goods.
1994		Penguin Bk of Aus. Jokes 338: Even when he trapped her, he found that he couldn’t possibly keep her still long enough to have his way with her. Flattery didn’t work, nor did tying her down. The pig just wouldn’t come across.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 129: Alia keeps coming across only I turn her down of course.

5. to confess (a crime).

1920		F. Packard White Moll iv: Cut out de high-brow stuff, an’ come across wid wot brought youse here.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 367: Physical weaklings are kicked and cuffed, and their wrists twisted or their fingers bent back until they ‘come across’.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 46: If I was you I’d come across. Slip me the works.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 18: Come across and I’ll let you go.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 355: Even the hard knocks will come across — they wouldn’t tell me who had done this Post Office job, but they would tell me who had attacked a woman.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 18: If you’d just cut the bollocks, come across and give us some names, we could do a deal.