Dictionary

money tree en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. An imaginary tree from which money can be plucked. See money doesn't grow on trees.
   • Money does not grow on trees. There is no money tree at Mount Kildare. If we had a money tree, boys, there would be no need of the bakery, no need of the raffle. 2004, Leo Furey, The Long Run, page 86:
   • Maybe we could learn how to grow money trees. 1967, Canadian Parliament, House of Commons Debates, volume 1, page 699:
   • Her rival […]argued for fiscal responsibility and warned that such a reckless policy would lead to a run on the pound and a calamitous series of mortgage-rate rises. Given this choice, the electorate for the Tory leadership[…]preferred the magical money tree. 2022 October 14, Tom McTague, “The Liz Truss Travesty Becomes Britain’s Humiliation”, in The Atlantic:
   • But there isn't a magic money tree that we can shake, that suddenly provides for everything that people want. 2017, Question Time (television), spoken by Theresa May, via BBC:
2. (name) The Malabar chestnut, Pachira aquatica.
3. The jade plant, Crassula ovata.
4. The cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao.
5. (Chinese) A kind of holy tree believed to bring money and good fortune.
6. (US) A miniature tree sculpture decorated with currency, often used as a raffle prize or a gift.
   • 2003, North Carolina Folklore Society, North Carolina Folklore Journal, Volumes 50-53, page 23, Some families offer elaborate money trees, fashioned from decorated branches and streamers made of bills carefully pinned together […] .
   • 2001, Daniel J. Brown, Chapter 11: School Voluntarism, Social Capital, and Civil Society, Heinz-Dieter Meyer, William Lowe Boyd (editors), Education: Between States, Markets, and Civil Society: Comparative Perspectives, Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, page 173, Donations from teachers and others were converted into coinage for a money tree that was raffled for $500.
   • 1972, American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, American Association of Industrial Nurses, Occupational Health Nursing, Volume 20, page 26, NIAIN′s one money making project of the year, a money tree, was raffled off and won by Virginia Call of Bell and Howell.
7. (Australia) A cheap tree sculpture, decorated with currency, used as a raffle prize because it would be illegal to offer a cash prize.

Forms

Hypernyms

tree

Relateds

money doesn't grow on trees

Synonyms

friendship tree (jade plant) · money plant (jade plant) · saba nut (Malabar chestnut) · provision tree (Malabar chestnut) · Guiana chestnut (Malabar chestnut) · magic money tree (an imaginary tree from which money can be plucked)

Translations (1)

da pengetræ (Imaginary tree from which money can be plucked)