Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

pin money en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /ˈpɪnmʌni/ (UK)

Meanings

  1. (historical, uncountable) An allowance of money given by a man to his wife or to other dependents for their personal, discretionary use.
    • Meronyms: pocket change, small change, loose change
    • Good gracious! Lord bless me! only think! dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it! And is it really true? Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and how great you will be! What pin money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 301:
    • But these sums were but a small part of their income, were merely pin money for their wives and children. 1911, David Graham Phillips, chapter 7, in The Conflict:
    • [H]e practised economy in the matter of his wife's pin-money. 1886, George Gissing, chapter 27, in Demos: A Story of English Socialism:
    • Certain it is that out of the lavish pin-money which her father gave her as a free gift from time to time, she only doled out a meagre allowance to her husband, and although she had everything she wanted, M. le Marquis on his side had often less than twenty francs in his pocket. 1921, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “On the Brink”, in Castles in the Air: Being the Adventures of M. Hector Ratichon, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1922, →OCLC, § 1, page 75:
    • Near-synonym: petty cash
    • Damn you for a Son of a Bitch! Shall you wear such Things, and I want Pin-Money? 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, section VI:
  2. (dated, idiomatic, uncountable) A relatively small sum of cash kept in one's personal possession for routine expenses or incidental purchases; an amount of money which is not particularly significant.
    • "Money—yes; pin money: a couple of hundred thousand, perhaps. Not more." Washington's eyes blazed. "A couple of hundred thousand dollars! do you call that pin money?" 1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter III, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., →OCLC, page 43:
    • Meronyms: pocket change, small change, loose change
    • Andrew pays all the farm expenses, but the housekeeping accounts fall to me. I make a fairish amount of pin money on my poultry and some of my preserves that I send to Boston, […] 1917, Christopher Morley, chapter 3, in Parnassus on Wheels, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 26:
    • "When did you leave Oklahoma? Where is Reddy McGill now? Why are you selling those impossible contraptions on the street?["] […] "A year ago," answered Kansas Bill systematically. "Putting up windmills in Arizona. For pin money to buy etceteras with.["] 1906 August, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “A Ruler of Men”, in H[arry] P[eyton] S[teger], editor, Rolling Stones, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., published 1915, →OCLC, page 9:
    • Near-synonym: petty cash

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
pin-money alternative lexicographic

Coordinates

chump change

Hypernyms

allowance

Synonyms

walk-around money · spending money · petty cash · walking-around money · pocket money · walk-around money · beer money · pocket money · petty cash · walking-around money · beer money · spending money

Translations (4)

gv argid ullee (wife's allowance) · gv argid poagey (wife's allowance) · de Nadelgeld (wife's allowance) · cs jehelné (wife's allowance)