coin

¹

[ koin ]

noun

1. a piece of metal stamped and issued by the authority of a government for use as money.
2. a number of such pieces.
3. Informal. money; cash:

   He's got plenty of coin in the bank.

4. Architecture. quoin ( defs 1, 2 ).
5. Archaic. a corner cupboard of the 18th century.

adjective

1. operated by, or containing machines operated by, inserting a coin or coins into a slot:

   a coin laundry.

verb (used with object)

1. to make (coinage) by stamping metal:

   The mint is coining pennies.

2. to convert (metal) into coinage:

   The mint used to coin gold into dollars.

3. to make; invent; fabricate:

   to coin an expression.

4. Metalworking. to shape the surface of (metal) by squeezing between two dies. Compare emboss ( def 3 ).

verb (used without object)

1. British Informal. to counterfeit, especially to make counterfeit money.

COIN

²

[ koin ]

noun

1. counterinsurgency.

coin

/ kɔɪn /

noun

1. a metal disc or piece used as money
2. metal currency, as opposed to securities, paper currency, etc nummary
3. architect a variant spelling of quoin
4. pay a person back in his own coin
   to treat a person in the way that he has treated others
5. the other side of the coin
   the opposite view of a matter

verb

1. tr to make or stamp (coins)
2. tr to make into a coin
3. tr to fabricate or invent (words, etc)
4. informal.
   tr to make (money) rapidly (esp in the phrase coin it in )
5. to coin a phrase
   said ironically after one uses a cliché

Derived Forms

• ˈcoiner, noun
• ˈcoinable, adjective

Other Words From

• coin·a·ble adjective
• coin·er noun
• mis·coin verb
• re·coin verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of coin¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English coyn(e), coygne, from Anglo-French; Middle French coin, cuigne “wedge, corner, die,” from Latin cuneus “wedge”

Origin of coin²

co(unter) in(surgency)

Word History and Origins

Origin of coin¹

C14: from Old French: stamping die, from Latin cuneus wedge

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. coin money, Informal. to make or gain money rapidly:

   Those who own stock in that restaurant chain are coining money.

2. pay someone back in his / her own coin, to reciprocate or behave toward in a like way, especially inamicably; retaliate:

   If they persist in teasing you, pay them back in their own coin.

3. the other side of the coin, the other side, aspect, or point of view; alternative consideration.

More idioms and phrases containing coin

In addition to the idiom beginning with coin , also see other side of the coin ; pay back (in someone's own coin) .

Example Sentences

The musician joins Boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled as celebrities who’ve been sued by the Wall Street regulator for hyping initial coin offerings.

From Fortune

However, when the coin is flipped on any other state that is not competitive, the probabilities of all the other states are stable.

From Ozy

Soon after, officials at the Energy Department began to coin new terms for American LNG, calling it “freedom gas” and “molecules of freedom” as they sought to market it around the world.

From ProPublica

For central banks, including the Federal Reserve, a purely digital currency—one not linked to coins or paper bills—would represent a step beyond the existing system of electronic money transfer.

From Fortune

About the size of a large coin, the device replaces a small chunk of your skull and sits flush with the surrounding skull matter.

From Singularity Hub 

Asteroids, at the moment I am writing, is the most popular coin-operated game—video, pinball, or other—in the United States.

From The Daily Beast

Some of the things Lawrence had to alter from the book involved President Coin, played by Julianne Moore.

From The Daily Beast

Americans want to do something about this coin-operated government.

From The Daily Beast

“When you fired your arrow at the force field, you electrified a nation,” President Coin (Julianne Moore) tells her.

From The Daily Beast

She was gambling on a coin toss where somehow “heads, you win” would have been politically more advantageous than “tails, I lose.”

From The Daily Beast

It was a mighty simple transaction, but it produced some startling results for me, that same coin-spinning.

From Project Gutenberg

A bezant was a gold coin, originally struck at Byzantium, whence the name.

From Project Gutenberg

The soldiers so frequently threw away copper coin given them in change as valueless, that many natives discontinued to offer it.

From Project Gutenberg

And putting his hand in his pocket, he drew out a golden coin, and slipped it into Donald's hand.

From Project Gutenberg

It was not practicable to deny a legal-tender value to so much Mexican, and Spanish-Philippine coin in circulation.

From Project Gutenberg