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Here's from dictionary.com:
ante up
transitive and intransitive verb
pay what is owed: to pay money that is due to be paid ( informal )
And from onelook.com:
Quick definitions (ante up)
verb: cancel or discharge a debt
It seems that canceling and discharging would be to free a person from having to pay a debt rather than the person's paying off the debt.
My question is: Can canceling a debt and discharging it mean to pay off the debt? If so, I've never heard those two verbs used in this way.
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Cancelling a debt doesn't mean you've paid it off, it just means that you no longer owe the money. Like when somebody goes bankrupt. They are discharged from paying back the money to their creditors. The debt is cancelled.
I don't quite see how that fits with the word "ante" though since if you ante, you give out money.
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Absolutely. That's why I posted the question, belm'. I don't understand onelook.com's definitions for ante up because it appears that the definitions mean a cancellation as you have written. However, there may be some usage somewhere in which to cancel a debt would mean to repay it and to discharge a debt would mean the same. I just have never heard the verbs so used, and thought I would ask here. If to cancel and to discharge cannot mean to repay or remove, then it appears onelook.com could be in error.
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just in general, I find some of onelook's "quick definitions" to be suspect because they use only sources which are free of copyright protection. one of their "quick" sources is the 1913 Webster's, which can be badly outdated.
of course, this answers none of your questions about this specific instance.
the phrase 'ante up' comes from poker, I believe, where it means pay up what you owe to get into the next hand (pot).
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First--I don't use the word very often, but when I do I usually say just ante; to me, adding the 'up' indicates stronger emPHAsis (hi, tsuwm).
Secondly--I understood the def. perfectly, outdated or not. Depends on the point of view: if the debtor pays it off, the debt exists no more--it has been cancelled; if the lender forgives the debt (or if the debtor is granted bankruptcy--thank you, bel, I didn't think of that), then also the debt no longer exists and it has been cancelled.
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