fork out

English

Verb

fork out (third-person singular simple present forks out, present participle forking out, simple past and past participle forked out)

1. (transitive, informal) To pay out, to hand over

   The hard drive broke down, so I forked out five hundred dollars for a new one.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     We must go to Athens. Will you come if I can get the aunt to fork out twenty quid?

   • 2022 January 4, Marina Hyde, “Hiding behind the loophole of a dead sex trafficker? Stay classy, Andrew”, in The Guardian‎:

     But in the event that Giuffre’s case against Andrew proceeds and he loses it, and a multimillion-dollar payment has to be made, you get the feeling public attitudes would change overnight if the maternal bailout ran to forking out Andy’s damages for him.

Synonyms

• cough up
• fork over
• shell out