cold cash

noun

1. money immediately available:

   They will accept payment in cold cash only.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cold cash¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Idioms and Phrases

Also, hard cash . Actual currency (bills and coins); money immediately available, paid at the time of a purchase. For example, Will you lower the price if I pay in cold cash instead of using a credit card? or We have only a limited amount of hard cash—the rest is in accounts receivable . [First half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

With little access to cold cash, villagers in the East New Britain province turned to their existing collections of the shells of nassa mud snails.

From Ozy

If you want to exchange those paintings for cold cash, the amount of the reward, or ransom, if you like, is the going price.

From The Daily Beast

The media mogul has used cold cash to sway politicians and lobby regulators.

From The Daily Beast

If you will pitch that game so Harvard will win, I'll give you a thousand dollars in cold cash.

From Project Gutenberg

The personal relation was forever gone, and only a hard, cold cash nexus remained.

From Project Gutenberg

Well, granted health, one can be boss of old Dame Circumstance, if one has the price in cold cash.

From Project Gutenberg

As soon as he'd squeal I'd spring cold cash on him, money down, and he's hit gravel like an ostrich.

From Project Gutenberg

When your company planks down fifty thousand in cold cash we will trade,—not before.

From Project Gutenberg