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pin money
noun
- any small sum set aside for nonessential minor expenditures.
- (formerly) an allowance of money given by a husband to his wife for her personal expenditures.
pin money
noun
- an allowance by a husband to his wife for personal expenditure
- money saved or earned to be used for incidental expenses
Other Words From
- pin-money adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of pin money1
Idioms and Phrases
Small amounts of money for incidental expenses, as in Grandma usually gives the children some pin money whenever she visits . This expression originally signified money given by a husband to his wife for small personal expenditures such as pins, which were very costly items in centuries past. A will recorded at York in 1542 listed a bequest: “I give my said daughter Margarett my lease of the parsonage . . . to buy her pins.” [Early 1500s]Example Sentences
Jobs in retail and hospitality, for example, were considered “women’s jobs” for “pin money,” Lichtenstein said.
This we suppose to have been the last argument used against offenders whose wages or whose pin-money had been sworn away.
Take it all in—and I reckon this is all—we'll be in luck to pinch a little pin-money out of the estate for Sylvia.
He allows you liberally for pin-money in addition to your own small independent income.
He has been taught economy; he is, like me, naturally of a very generous turn; he will occasionally offer you pin-money.
A very nice little sum for pin money, but quite useless for our purposes.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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