Pony up

verb, slang

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To pay (usually a bill, debt or due). intransitive, slang, transitive

    "Every man, save Silvy, vociferously swore that he had ponied up his "quarter:" whereupon the landlady observed that Silvy the less had not paid his reckoning."

  2. 2
    give reluctantly wordnet

Etymology

Originally often poney. US early 19th century. According to Michael Quinion, probably not from the monetary sense of pony and instead from Latin "Legem pone mihi Domine viam iustificationum tuarum" (“Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes”) in reference to March 25th, a traditional day of debt settlement. This etymology has been accepted by the American Heritage Dictionary.

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