cast up one's accounts

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English

Pronunciation

Verb

cast up one's accounts (third-person singular simple present casts up one's accounts, present participle casting up one's accounts, simple past and past participle cast up one's accounts)

  1. To come to an accounting; to examine and strike the balance of debt and credit; reckon.
    • 2005, Benedictus de Spinoza, A Theologico-Political Treatise, and a Political Treatise, →ISBN, page xviii:
      He was very careful to cast up his accounts every quarter ; which he did, that he might spend neither more nor less than what he could spend every year.
    • 2007, J. C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, →ISBN, page 121:
      If a man should cast up his accounts once a week, or once a month, he may not be able to discern that he doth grow rich, and yet he may grow rich.
    • 2008, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Devotional Classics of C. H. Spurgeon, →ISBN, page 18:
      EVERY WISE MERCHANT will occasionally hold a stock-taking, when he will cast up his accounts, examine what he has on hand, and ascertain decisively whether his trade is prosperous or declining.
  2. (idiomatic, archaic) To vomit.
    • 1854, François Rabelais, Jacob Le Duchat, John Ozell, The Works of Francis Rabelais - Volume 1, page 134:
      To cast up one's accounts upon excessive drinking ; either, says Cotgrave, because in spewing one makes a noise like a fox that barks, or (from the subject to the effect) because the flaying of so unsavoury a beast will make any one spew.
    • 2004, Jo Beverley, Secrets of the Night, →ISBN:
      A foul taste. Vomit. 'Struth! Embarrassing memory flooded back. He'd cast up his accounts in front of a woman.
    • 2014, Heather Boyd -, Just a Dream, →ISBN:
      As he handed the tray over, he heard the knocker echo through the house. Thinking it might be Jimmy, he turned back to his father to warn him only to see him reach for the chamber pot and cast up his accounts.
    • 2015, Sabrina Jeffries, If the Viscount Falls, →ISBN, page 20:
      She was about to be sick right here in front of them all. That would be the worst humiliation imaginable. Mustn't cast up my accounts, mustn't cast up my accounts.

Alternative forms

References

  • [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) “Cast up one's accounts”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. , London: C. Chappell, , →OCLC.
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