Search Results for money | Strange Phrases

Penny pincher

Meaning A person who is extremely careful with money and reluctant to spend even the smallest sums; the verb form means to economize severely. It implies stinginess or joyless frugality rather than sensible thrift…

Also known as penny-pinching · pinch pennies · pinchpenny

Small potatoes

Meaning … or hardly worth consideration, especially of sums of money, achievements or problems ('that is small potatoes next to the deficit'). Applied to people it once meant unimportant or contemptible, a use that now…

Also known as mere small potatoes · pretty small potatoes · small potato · small potatoes next to

On a shoestring

Meaning Doing something with very little money or on a minimal budget ('they ran the cafe on a shoestring for its first two years'); also attributively, as in 'shoestring budget'. American in origin but now general…

Also known as live on a shoestring · shoestring budget · shoestring operation

The Midas touch

Meaning … ability to turn anything one deals with into success or money - the lucky or skillful knack that makes every venture flourish. The phrase is usually admiring, sometimes envious, and ironists add the reverse…

Also known as have the Midas touch · reverse Midas touch · the golden touch

Ring the changes

Meaning … figurative use it has nothing to do with bells or with money, though its literal source is bell-ringing. A touch literary or old-fashioned in American English; neutral and familiar in British English…

Also known as rang the changes on · ring the changes on · ringing the changes · rung the changes on

A Pyrrhic victory

Meaning … barely distinguishable from losing. The damage may be in money, manpower, reputation, or political capital, and the phrase implies the act of winning has crippled the victor's ability to go on. Rather formal…

Also known as a Pyrrhic win · prove a Pyrrhic victory · Pyrrhic success · win a Pyrrhic victory

A shot in the arm

Meaning … or encouragement - an event, piece of news, or infusion of money that revives energy, confidence, or activity, much as an injection of a stimulant revives a patient. Informal to neutral; a workhorse of…

Also known as a much-needed shot in the arm · a real shot in the arm · give something a shot in the arm

Feather your nest

Meaning … comfortably wealthy, especially by quietly accumulating money, perks, or advantages through a job or official position. The phrase typically carries disapproval, implying self-interest at others' expense, and…

Also known as feather his nest · feather one's nest at the public's expense · feather their nests · feather your own nest

On your beam-ends

Meaning In a desperate position with no resources left, usually money, options, or time running out. The image is a ship heeled so far over that its beams, the horizontal timbers running across the hull, are nearly…

Also known as laid on her beam-ends · on her beam-ends · on one's beam-ends

Bone of contention

Meaning … keeps a quarrel alive - a clause in a contract, a sum of money, a boundary line - rather than the quarrel itself, and it suits negotiations, politics, and family arguments alike. Neutral to slightly formal…

Also known as a major bone of contention · bone of dissension (earlier historical form) · the biggest bone of contention · the main bone of contention

The almighty dollar

Meaning A sarcastic name for money, casting the dollar as an idol worshipped above everything else. Calling it almighty - a word once reserved for God alone - mocks the way material wealth becomes the true object of…

Also known as almighty dollars · the mighty dollar · the pursuit of the almighty dollar

Bring home the bacon

Meaning To earn money or achieve success, especially to support a household; to win a prize or secure the desired result. Common in sports and business talk for coming out on top. Informal and upbeat; now used…

Also known as bring home the bacon and the gravy · bring the bacon home · bringin' home the bacon · take home the bacon

Not worth a red cent

Meaning … someone has or will pay not even the smallest amount of money. The red cent is the American copper one-cent coin, for decades the lowest-value US coin, so the phrase marks the very bottom of the scale of…

Also known as haven't got a red · not one red cent · without a red cent

Nothing to sneeze at

Meaning … it is genuinely considerable - especially an amount of money, an achievement, or a score. Calling a sum 'nothing to sneeze at' is a way of insisting that other people should not dismiss it. Informal in…

Also known as Not to be sneezed at · Not to be sniffed at · Nothing to sniff at

Save for a rainy day

Meaning To put money or other resources aside for a future time of need, such as job loss, illness or emergency repairs. It frames saving as prudent insurance against misfortune rather than investing for a specific…

Also known as keep something for a rainy day · put something aside for a rainy day · rainy-day fund · saving for a rainy day

Vanish into thin air

Meaning … sign, or explanation behind. Applied to people, objects, money, files, and hopes alike, it typically carries a note of bafflement at how something apparently solid could simply cease to exist. Neutral…

Also known as disappear into thin air · disappeared into thin air · into thin air · vanished into thin air

Rob Peter to pay Paul

Meaning To take money or resources from one person, account or purpose in order to satisfy a debt or need somewhere else, so that the overall position does not improve; solving one obligation by creating another of…

Also known as borrow from Peter to pay Paul · robbing Peter to pay Paul · steal from Peter to pay Paul · take from Peter to pay Paul

Jump on the gravy train

Meaning Join or exploit a situation that offers easy money, benefits or advancement, often with a suggestion of opportunism or unfair advantage.

Also known as Get on the gravy train · Gravy train · Ride the gravy train

Live from hand to mouth

Meaning To live with only enough money or food for immediate needs, so that whatever comes in is spent or eaten at once and nothing can be saved for emergencies; the adjective form describes a hand-to-mouth…

Also known as a hand-to-mouth existence · from hand to mouth · live hand to mouth · living from hand to mouth

The world's your oyster

Meaning … where the oyster was something to be forced open for money. Upbeat and encouraging; so much a staple of graduation and careers talk that it can sound like a cliche. Regional use: General English…

Also known as the world is her oyster · the world is his oyster

Slip through your fingers

Meaning … than deliberate choice. It is typically said of chances, money, time, offers, or people who drift away, and it carries a note of regret at a loss that was just barely avoidable. Neutral, mildly regretful…

Also known as let something slip through your fingers · slip through somebody's fingers · slip through your grasp · watch something slip through your fingers

Fine words butter no parsnips

Meaning Polite promises and flattering talk achieve nothing without practical action. Often used to demand evidence, money or action after reassuring talk. Regional use: British English.

Also known as Fair words butter no parsnips · Fine words butter no fish · Soft words butter no parsnips

Posh

Origin … slang for a dandy in the 1890s, itself from slang for money in 1830, possibly from Romany posh meaning half. The Phrase Finder also notes Murray Posh, 'a swell', in The Diary of a Nobody (1888) and treats a…

Also known as poshness (noun) · to posh something up (verb)

In for a penny, in for a pound

Meaning … commitment needed to finish it. Often spoken at the moment a small undertaking becomes a larger one. It need not involve money. Regional use: United Kingdom and wider Commonwealth; widely understood elsewhere…

Also known as If in for a penny, in for a pound · Once in for a penny, in for a pound