spit up

1. 1.

   give reluctantly

   “He coughed up some money for his children's tuition”

   Synonymscough uppony up

   Broadergive
2. 2.

   discharge (phlegm or sputum) from the lungs and out of the mouth

   Synonymsexpectoratecough upcough outspit out

   Broaderexhaust

   Narrowercoughspitsplutter

Questions about spit up

What does spit up mean?

spit up means "give reluctantly". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for spit up?

Close synonyms include cough up, pony up, expectorate, cough up, cough out. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is spit up a common word?

spit up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.