cash-out
Americannoun
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Also cashout a direct cash payment or a cash profit or remainder.
The store owner lived on a cash-out of fifty dollars a day.
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a payment of winnings or a cashing in of chips, as in a casino.
Usage
What does cash out mean? To cash out is to exchange something, such as casino chips or stocks, for money, as in Jorge had to cash out his retirement fund when he lost his job and couldn’t find another. Cash out is typically used in casinos, which use items such as chips or tokens to represent money you’ve won or paper slips that keep a tally of the money you’ve won. When you’re done gambling, you cash out by exchanging the items or paper slips for money. You can also cash out stocks, bonds, and similar investment products. Instead of exchanging chips or paper slips, you’re exchanging your share of ownership in the thing you purchased for the money your ownership represents. When referring to an exchange for money, you can also use cash in. To cash out also means to balance a cash register at the end of a work shift. When you cash out your register, you count all of the money in the register and all of the money spent with credit or debit cards to make sure the sum matches the cost of products sold. Example: Tanya always cashes out her register by adding the money on a piece of paper.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Private-equity firms often use continuation vehicles to buy companies from older funds, enabling the sponsors to hold on to the businesses while giving their fund investors a chance to cash out.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 2026
“The insurance company doesn’t have to inspect the vehicle to make sure it’s been repaired. So they’ll just cash out and then move on,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2026
And wealthy investors who put money in nontraded funds, like OTIC, have asked to cash out more than the 5% a quarter the funds were designed to repurchase.
From Barron's • Apr. 2, 2026
“Cliffwater is the poster child for success in semiliquid funds,” says Brian Moriarty, a senior researcher at Morningstar, referencing the type of fund that allows investors to cash out slowly over time.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
He held his wad of cash out to me, and I grabbed it.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
