Meaning
A stock of money set aside in advance for a coming struggle, most often an election campaign, a legal battle, or a corporate takeover fight, though the original reference was to financing a literal war. Also used loosely of any sizeable reserve earmarked for a specific contest, project, or emergency. Neutral-to-lively journalistic register; the battle metaphor survives strongly in campaign, courtroom, and takeover reporting. Regional use: General English (military origin).
Origin
Literally, the chest or strongbox in which an army's campaign money was kept. The Oxford English Dictionary, as summarised in reference works, describes the medieval custom of keeping a literal chest of money to be opened in the event of war, and the OED's public index dates the compound to 1732, in a branch defined as funds reserved for a particular purpose. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the now-usual figurative use from 1901, glossing the literal sense as a strong-box for funds used in waging war. Twentieth-century politics made the phrase everyday: incumbents accumulate campaign war chests partly to frighten off challengers before a primary, and business journalism uses it for acquisition funds, as in reports of ICI's one-billion-pound war chest in 2007. Football reporting extends it to a manager's transfer budget.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- build up a war chest
- campaign war chest
- election war chest
- war-chest (attributive)
Usage Examples
- The senator entered the primary with a war chest of thirty million dollars and no serious challenger.
- The parish council has quietly built a legal war chest in case the developers appeal the ruling.
- Two years of fundraising gave the relief agency a war chest ready for the next flood season.