cash register

American

noun

a business machine that indicates to customers the amounts of individual sales, has a money drawer from which to make change, records and totals receipts, and may automatically calculate the change due.

cash register British

noun

a till with a keyboard that operates a mechanism for displaying and adding the amounts of cash received in individual sales

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

cash registers

plural

Etymology

Origin of cash register

An Americanism dating back to 1875–80

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.

See Examples For:

cash register

She told the relative that she had to go back in because her company had asked her to move money from the cash register into a safe.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

The two men work the cash register and chat with customers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

The car business is the cash register that funds the empire.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 15, 2026

At the cash register, the cashier watched a website that tracked Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions around the region.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2025

The man slowly rings up each item on an antique cash register and then places it in a paper bag.

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023