pin money

English

Alternative forms

• pin-money

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪnmʌni/

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

pin money (uncountable)

1. (historical) An allowance of money given by a man to his wife or to other dependents for their personal, discretionary use.
   • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, section VI:

     Damn you for a Son of a Bitch! Shall you wear such Things, and I want Pin-Money?

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume III, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 301:

     Good gracious! Lord bless me! only think! dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it! And is it really true? Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and how great you will be! What pin money, what jewels, what carriages you will have!

   • 1886, George Gissing, chapter 27, in Demos: A Story of English Socialism:

     [H]e practised economy in the matter of his wife's pin-money.

   • 1911, David Graham Phillips, chapter 7, in The Conflict:

     But these sums were but a small part of their income, were merely pin money for their wives and children.

   • 1921, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “On the Brink”, in Castles in the Air: Being the Adventures of M. Hector Ratichon, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1922, →OCLC, § 1, page 75:

     Certain it is that out of the lavish pin-money which her father gave her as a free gift from time to time, she only doled out a meagre allowance to her husband, and although she had everything she wanted, M. le Marquis on his side had often less than twenty francs in his pocket.

2. (idiomatic, dated) A relatively small sum of cash kept in one's personal possession for routine expenses or incidental purchases; an amount of money which is not particularly significant.
   • 1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter III, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., →OCLC, page 43:

     "Money—yes; pin money: a couple of hundred thousand, perhaps. Not more." Washington's eyes blazed. "A couple of hundred thousand dollars! do you call that pin money?"

   • 1906 August, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “A Ruler of Men”, in H[arry] P[eyton] S[teger], editor, Rolling Stones, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., published 1915, →OCLC, page 9:

     "When did you leave Oklahoma? Where is Reddy McGill now? Why are you selling those impossible contraptions on the street?["] […] "A year ago," answered Kansas Bill systematically. "Putting up windmills in Arizona. For pin money to buy etceteras with.["]

   • 1917, Christopher Morley, chapter 3, in Parnassus on Wheels, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 26:

     Andrew pays all the farm expenses, but the housekeeping accounts fall to me. I make a fairish amount of pin money on my poultry and some of my preserves that I send to Boston, […]

Synonyms

• pocket money, spending money

Translations

Further reading

• “pin money”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.