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Glite Dictionary
💸 To pay unwillingly 🤧 To spit out
to cough up

to cough up

8 4.6
To bring mucus or blood up from the lungs into the mouth
  • phrasal verb
  • /kɔf ʌp/
translation icon : expectorar
  • Then he coughed up phlegm and swallowed.
  • cough up blood
  • cough up phlegm
  • cough up mucus

Examples

  • "The child coughed up blood."

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Have you coughed up any blood?

    Academic text (2012)

  • I cough up blood every once in a while.

    Blood and Money (2020)

  • But now I'm 35, and I hear him cough up phlegm.

    Hombre (1967)

  • I've only coughed up blood a handful of times.

    Blog text (1)

  • After the long illness, he finally managed to cough up some mucus from his lungs.

  • When he woke up, he started to cough up phlegm, indicating he was getting better.

  • The doctor told her she needed to cough up any excess mucus that had built up in her chest.

Synonyms

to spit
vsto cough up
315 1.0

To force liquid out of the mouth, often onto the ground

is more specific to raising material from deep in the lungs into the mouth
to spit out
vsto cough up
94 2.3

To push food or drink out of your mouth

is limited to moving material up from the lungs into the mouth rather than general ejection
to spit up
vsto cough up
1 4.1

To push food, milk, or phlegm out of the mouth

is specific to bringing material up from the lungs rather than any mouth output
to spew
vsto cough up
  • Informal
1 6.5

To spit out saliva, phlegm, or mucus from your mouth

is focused on bringing material up from the lungs into the mouth rather than general mouth ejection
to expectorate
vsto cough up
  • Specialized
1 9.9

To cough up and spit out mucus from the throat or lungs

is the everyday way of forcing material up from the lungs into the mouth
to cough out
vsto cough up
1 4.1

To force mucus out of the lungs through the mouth

is the general action of forcing material up from the lungs into the mouth
to spue
vsto cough up
  • NSFW
1 9.9

To force something out of the mouth, like saliva or vomit

is narrower, referring to moving lung material into the mouth rather than broad violent ejection

Antonyms

to inhale
84 2.7

To breathe in air, smoke, or gas into your lungs

How Forceful

to cough up
8 4.6
to cough
254 1.0

Surface Forms

cough up infinitive
coughed up past
coughed up past participle
coughing up present participle
coughs up third person singular

Morphology

cough + up

The literal meanings ('cough' = expel air; 'up' = upward/completion) offer a partial metaphorical clue of expelling or producing something, which could extend to handing something over. However, mapping that metaphor specifically to 'paying or giving money reluctantly' is not directly predictable without exposure, so a B1 learner who knows the parts would only get a vague hint rather than the exact meaning.

Etymology

Cough up began as the simple, physical action of using a strong cough to bring something from your chest into your mouth, to cough something up, like mucus or blood. So it still means 'to bring something up from the lungs by coughing'.