money

See Also: COST, GREED, RICHES

1. Ate up money like Crackerjacks —Robert Campbell
2. Bargain like a gipsy, but pay like a gentleman —Hungarian proverb
3. (There ain’t a chance of putting the bee on me … .I’m) flat [broke] as a ballroom floor —H. C. Witwer
4. Getting money is like digging with a needle; spending it is like water soaking into sand —Proverb
5. Gold, like the sun, which melts wax but hardens clay, expands great souls —Antoine Rivarol
6. An instinct like a water diviner’s where money’s concerned —John Braine
7. Loses money the way a … balloon loses air —Martin Cruz Smith

   In Smith’s novel, Stallion Gate, a character is likening a great club’s money loss to a beautiful balloon’s air loss.

8. Making money … is, in fact, almost as easy as losing it. Almost but not quite —H. L. Mencken
9. A man without money is like a bird without wings; if he soars he falls to the ground and dies —Roumanian proverb
10. He that is without money is like a bird without wings —Thomas Fuller
11. A man without money is like a ship without sails —Dutch proverb
12. Money is a bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience and truth may be drowned —Ivan Kozloff
13. Money is a muscle in our society like that of a leg or arm of a man with a shovel, and both muscles must have a wage —Janet Flanner
14. Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant —P. T. Barnum
15. Money is like an arm or a leg, use it or lose it —Henry Ford, New York Times, November 8, 1931
16. Money is like an eel in the hand —Welsh proverb
17. Money is like a sixth sense, and you can’t make use of the other five without it —W. Somerset Maugham, New York Times Magazine, October 18, 1958
18. Public money is like holy water: every one helps himself to it —Italian proverb
19. Money is like promises, easier made than kept —Josh Billings

    In Billing’s phonetic dialect: “Munny … easier maid than kept.”

20. Money is like the reputation for ability, more easily made than kept —Samuel Butler
21. Money, like a boot, when it’s tight is extremely trying —Punch, 1864
22. Money is like muck, not good except it be spread —Francis Bacon

    Variations include: “Money is like dung;” “Riches are like muck, which stink in a heap, but spread abroad, make the earth fruitful;” and “Money like manure does no good till it is spread.” Two contemporary figures who have been widely quoted for perversions of the above are Clint Murchison, Jr. and J. Paul Getty. The first quoting his father’s advice that, “Money is like manure. If you spread it around, it does a lot of good. But if you pile it up in one place, it stinks like hell;” the latter with “Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.”

23. Money, like vodka, makes a man eccentric —Anton Chekhov
24. Money’s as cold and neutral as the universe —Hortense Calisher
25. Money slips from his fingers like a watermelon seed, travels without legs, and flies without wings —Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms
26. Money … was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did —James Baldwin
27. Serious money is like cancer, it breeds itself —A. Alvarez
28. Spending money like a pusher —M. S. Craig
29. Spent her money like a spoiled empress —Marjory Stoneman Douglas
30. They talk about it [money] as if it were something you got pink gums from —Ogden Nash

axle grease Australian slang for money, which greases the wheels of life, so to speak, helping things to run along more smoothly.

chicken feed Small change; a paltry or inconsequential amount of money. This American slang expression, which dates from 1836, is an allusion to the scraps and seeds fed to chickens.

fast buck Money acquired quickly and effortlessly, usually through illegal or unscrupulous methods. In this expression, buck carries the American slang meaning of dollar, making the origin of the term self-evident.

filthy lucre Money; money or other material goods acquired through unethical or dishonorable means, dirty money. This expression was first used in an epistle by St. Paul:

a king’s ransom A very large sum of money. This expression, perhaps familiarized by the hefty sum demanded for the release of the kidnapped King Richard the Lion-Hearted, maintains frequent usage.

loaves and fishes Monetary fringe benefits to be derived from public or ecclesiastical office; the personal profit one stands to gain from an office or public enterprise. This use of loaves and fishes derives from John 6:26:

Today the phrase is also sometimes heard in referring to any unanticipated, miraculous proliferation or abundance. This emphasis on abundance rather than personal gain derives from the actual description of the miracle of the loaves and fishes (John 6:11-13).

mad money Money for frivolous purchases or little luxuries; money for a bit of riotous living-it-up. Originally mad money was that carried by a woman in the event her escort made advances prompting her to leave him in the lurch and finance her own return home. It subsequently came to be applied to money used for any emergency, but at some point took the grand leap from necessity to luxury Perhaps today it might qualify as what economists call discretionary income.

monkey’s allowance A trifling amount of money; a pittance; a paltry sum. This expression is derived from the saying, “He gets a monkey’s allowance—more kicks than halfpence.” At one time, trained monkeys performed tricks and then collected money from passers-by. If the monkey performed poorly, its owner often kicked or otherwise punished the animal. Thus, the monkey’s allowance was frequently more abuse than money. By extension, a person who receives a “monkey’s allowance” is one who works diligently but receives little, if any, payment for his labor. A related expression is monkey’s money ‘something of no value.’

nest egg Money saved, particularly a reserve fund for use in emergencies or retirement; a bank account or other form of investment which regularly increases in value by virtue of interest accrued or additional deposits made. Originally, a nest egg was a natural or artificial egg which was placed in a hen’s nest to induce her to lay eggs of her own. Though the term retains this connotation, it has been extended to imply that once a person has saved a certain amount of money, he is likely to save more.

pin money A small amount of money set aside for nonessential or frivolous expenditures; an allowance given to a woman by her husband. When common or straight pins were invented in the 13th century, they were expensive and relatively scarce, being sold on only one or two days a year. For this reason, many women were given a regular allowance called pin money which was to be saved until the pins were once again available for purchase. In the 14th and 15th centuries, it was not uncommon for a man to bequeath to his wife a certain amount of money to be used for buying pins. Eventually, as pins became cheaper and more plentiful, the pin money was used for trifling personal expenses, but the expression persisted.

rubber check A bad check; a check not covered by sufficient funds. A check issued for an amount greater than the account balance is said to bounce, because it is returned to its payee.

a shot in the locker A reserve, usually financial; a last resource or chance. Locker is a nautical term for the compartment on board a vessel in which are stored ammunition, clothes, etc. Shot in the locker is literally stored ammunition; figuratively, it refers to a stash of money.

This expression is often heard in the negative not a shot in the locker, meaning no money or means of survival.

small potatoes See INSIGNIFICANCE.

sugar and honey Rhyming slang for money. This expression dates from the mid-19th century. Sugar alone is a popular slang term for money, in Britain as well as in the United States, where most people are unaware that the term is a truncated version of a rhyming slang expression.

widow’s mite See CHARITABLENESS.