shell out

[Unix] To spawn an interactive subshell from within a program (e.g. a mailer or editor). "Bang foo runs foo in a subshell, while bang alone shells out."

[Jargon File]

(1995-05-11)

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
 

68 Moby Thesaurus words for "shell out": accord, administer, afford, allot, allow, award, bestow, bestow on, budget, communicate, confer, cost, cost out, deal, deal out, disburse, dish out, dispense, dole, dole out, donate, expend, extend, fork out, gift, gift with, give, give freely, give out, go through, grant, hand out, heap, help to, impart, incur costs, invest, issue, lavish, lay out, let have, mete, mete out, offer, open the purse, outlay, pay, pay out, pour, present, proffer, put out, rain, render, run through, schedule, serve, shower, sink money in, slip, snow, spend, splurge, squander, tender, throw money around, vouchsafe, yield

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

shell out v : administer or bestow, as in small portions; "administer critical remarks to everyone present"; "dole out some money"; "shell out pocket money for the children"; "deal a blow to someone" [syn: distribute, administer, mete out, deal, parcel out, lot, dispense, deal out, dish out, allot, dole out]

Source: WordNet (r) 2.0