cash register

American  

noun

1. a business machine that indicates to customers the amounts of individual sales, has a money drawer from which to make change, records and totals receipts, and may automatically calculate the change due.

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cash register British  

noun

1. a till with a keyboard that operates a mechanism for displaying and adding the amounts of cash received in individual sales

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Etymology

Origin of cash register

An Americanism dating back to 1875–80

Example Sentences

As a man in his 60s, I’ve been to my share of bereavement services—but only one took place in front of a cash register.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

The car business is the cash register that funds the empire.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 15, 2026

The finish line isn’t moral resolution, but the banality of the cash register: a product governed where it matters most, at the point of sale.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

Through his cousin Sony, who resides in a nearby halfway house and obsesses about the Civil War, Hai is hired by Home Market, where he scrubs counters and toilets and works the cash register.

From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2025

Beside the cash register was a spinning kiosk of postcards—ten for $1.00.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen