shell out

British

verb

informal (adverb) to pay out or hand over (money)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

shell out Idioms

Pay, hand over, as in We had to shell out $1,000 for auto repairs. This expression transfers taking a seed such as a pea or nut out of its pod or shell to taking money out of one's pocket. [Colloquial; c. 1800]

Etymology

Origin of shell out

C19: from _shell (in the sense: to remove from a pod or (figuratively) a purse)

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If you want to make a 20% down payment on a $750,000 home, the recommended percentage to avoid private mortgage insurance, you’d need to shell out $150,000.

From MarketWatch • May 29, 2026

Back in 2022 you only had to shell out £1 for the average box of six supermarket own brand free-range eggs.

From BBC • May 24, 2026

Gartner expects firms will shell out $2.5 trillion this year, more than the entire GDP of Italy, and rise to $3.3 billion in 2027.

From Barron's • May 7, 2026

With the war in Iran restricting the oil market and sending prices up, U.S. customers will likely have to shell out more for airfare soon.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 28, 2026

He said that the magazine wasn’t prepared to shell out $65,000 but that he and the other editors thought the commercialization of Everest was an important story.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023