Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to pay out money in advance; cit. 1997 refers to a supply of saleable drugs.

1861		N.-Y. Trib. 10 Aug. n.p.: I have had to ante up at the rate of $200.
1874		Ballou’s Mthly Mag. 39-40 99/1: So he packed up his best clothes, and gettin’ the old gent to ‘ante up’ for him, he started out travellin’.
1880		Wkly Times (Melbourne) 3 Apr. 17/1: [B]ut the magistrate having signed the tail bond, had to anty up; and the prisoner, like the humble petitioner, says ‘he will ever pray’.
1888		N.Y. Mercury 21 July n.p.: If you cannot be a captain / Of a famous baseball nine, / You can ante up your fifty cents, / And at the players whine.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 12/4: At a recent swell marriage in Paris the Pope’s blessing for the bridal brace was put in the form of a telegram which a priest brought to the officiating Nuncio upon a silver salver. Whereupon the Nuncio read the sacred ‘wire,’ [...] and the bride’s mother went into the vestry and anted up ten thousand francs for the glad tidings.
1895–6		(?) H. Lawson ‘How Steelman Told His Story’ in Roderick (1972) 222: The man that doesn’t ante gets the best of this world.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Apr. 8/6: And several other things occurred, / Witch are a shame to say; / He has to antey up for all, / In other words to pay.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 29/2: Then I had a dozen, maybe, till the morning after that; / When she sez – ‘No; not another, till you ante up the sprat.’ / ‘But,’ I sez, ‘I’m stony-broke.’ / ‘Well,’ she sez, ‘it’s past a joke; / An’, as you’ve spent your money – why, I think you’d better go.’.
1907		(?) H. Lawson ‘The Rising of the Court’ in Roderick (1972) 665: The last time Squinny got five bob or the risin’ he ante’d up the splosh like a man.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 10: He would ante you a stud, he would play you a draw.
1916		Electrical Experimenter Jan. 472/2: ‘Ugh! An inventor, eh?’ ‘Nix! He’s not an inventor himself, but he antes-up for ’em’.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 80: He would ‘ante ten dollars to the church’s kitty’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 50: They’d lie right down and die if they knew Sid had anted up a hundred and twenty-six bones.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 106: He could get married to some film star for a coupla months before she got sick of ante-ing up all the time to keep his palooka in hair-oil.
1947		C. Willingham End as a Man (1952) 77: Ante up, guys! Ante up!
1958		L.F. Cooley Run For Home (1959) 310: None of these guys are gonna ante up dough.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 206: There’s nearly always some sucker who’ll ante up, just to see him perform.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 76: They find their hires, set their wages, and ante up the day’s first installment.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘Ante up, my boy. This could be a great investment for you’.

2. (Aus.) to surrender (something), to hand over; thus to pay one’s dues.

1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Oct. 3/2: Four creditors [...] followed Green and bailed him up, one of the number presenting a pistol at him and ordering him to ‘ante up’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 10/3: The lodger entered a demurrer and declined ‘to part,’ but when the man of rum produced a double-barrelled gun and pointed it at the offender’s stomach, the latter ‘caved in’ and agreed to ante up.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 10 Feb. 4/8: Mr Hornbury Hunt was then asked whether he intended to ‘ante up’ those books.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 3: ANTE-UP: cards and slang [...] adapted from poker playing, to pay up, disgorge or refund money, to shell out. A demand for wages, alms, stakes, or plunder: ‘Come on now, ante-up.’.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/8: ’E went off pop on her like ’ell. Told ’er if she didn’t ante up some brass, ’e’d take it out of ’er ’ide.
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’ Connor (1910) 237: You got a right to ante up with some information.
1909		N.Z. Truth 29 May 4/8: The bookie barman blankly refused to ante up and the poor punter was paralysed and despair-stricken.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 8: ante up — to surrender anything.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: ante up. To surrender an article that was ‘souvenired,’ to hand over, to settle an account.
1939		Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, NY) 11 July 6/4: [cartoon caption] ‘Well, Emmy, th’ pawbroker anted up a hunnert and sixty coconuts’.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 16: When it was time to ante up with the brass for the meal he found he had seventy cents.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 18: This Curtis was blowin’ people up all over the neighborhood, mostly policy and dope guys that wouldn’t ante up.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 15: Ante up, bright boy.

3. in fig. use, to explain oneself.

1872

‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 332: I reckon I can’t call that hand. Ante and pass the buck.

4. (US) in fig. use, to approach physically, to move towards.

1880

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Dec. 3/3: ‘[A]ll you starved bums [...] come up here and have a drink with a throughbred high-stepper for once [...] Ante up to the bar, now, and look pleasant’.