bill of exchange

American  

noun

1. a written authorization or order to pay a specified sum of money to a specified person.

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bill of exchange British  

noun

1. (now chiefly in foreign transactions) a document, usually negotiable, containing an instruction to a third party to pay a stated sum of money at a designated future date or on demand

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Etymology

Origin of bill of exchange

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

A Dunlap broadside, along with a Yiddish-language letter and a bill of exchange, was sent overseas by the Jewish merchant Jonas Phillips to a relative in Amsterdam.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 16, 2025

Richard Smith, freshly arrived from England, comes bearing a formidable bill of exchange, requiring that the town bank hand over the fabulous amount of one thousand pounds sterling.

From Slate • Dec. 13, 2017

Italian merchants of the 14th century, for example, rather than the bureaucrats of China, devised the essential principles of accounting like double-entry bookkeeping and such financial devices as the bill of exchange and limited liability.

From Time Magazine Archive

A "forcible bill of exchange" for all credit sales, costing up to $200 on a transaction involving $50,000, would yield another $1,000,000, and a 5% tax on capital leaving the island $1,100,000 more.

From Time Magazine Archive

They are a sort of post-office bill of exchange, and are largely employed in the transmission of small sums by mail.

From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Stanton, Henry B.