Meaning
A reserve of money kept outside normal accounting, typically used flexibly, secretly, or for improper purposes such as bribery or hiding expenses. It can also mean, more neutrally, any discretionary pool of cash, but the modern use almost always carries a taint of concealment or corruption, especially in political and corporate reporting. Strongly negative connotation, implying secrecy or corruption. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The naval story checks out. 'Slush' was the waste fat skimmed from the coppers in which salted meat was boiled; from the mid-1700s it was a saleable commodity bought ashore by makers of candles and the like. The proceeds were set aside for the crew and spent on small luxuries the navy did not supply, a perquisite of the cook's office. Merriam-Webster's earliest citations include the Daily National Journal (1825) for supplies bought with the fund and the Army and Navy Chronicle (1836) explaining that the money 'is raised by a disposal of the slush' aboard warships; the dictionary dates first known use to 1839. By mid-century the term meant any general-purpose money, and the political sense, a fund for bribing officials or financing dirty propaganda, arose in the late 1860s, with 1867 newspaper citations from railroad-sale fraud reporting.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- slush account
- slush money
Usage Examples
- Auditors found that the marketing budget had doubled as a slush fund for the director's personal travel.
- The committee kept a small slush fund for unlisted expenses, which always looked bad at audit time.
- Prosecutors argued the consulting contracts were a slush fund used to bribe local officials.