cash on the barrelhead

Idioms  

1. Immediate payment, as in They won't extend credit; it's cash on the barrelhead or no sale. The lexicographer Charles Earle Funk surmised that this term originated in the days when upended barrels served as both seats and tables in bars, and customers were required to pay for their drinks immediately, literally putting their money on the top (head) of a barrel.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cash on the barrelhead

For the small fry, that kind of cash on the barrelhead is a huge inducement: if they hang on and sell their liquor themselves, they are liable to excess-profits taxes running up to 90%.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thereafter no belligerent may buy arms in the U. S. without paying cash on the barrelhead.

From Time Magazine Archive

The money would be cash on the barrelhead, said Ratliff, where the Times-Star offered only $1,250,000 down.

From Time Magazine Archive

From five bids for the Stevens it chose to take $5,251,000 cash on the barrelhead from Arnold Kirkaby, who already owns Chicago's Drake and Blackstone Hotels.

From Time Magazine Archive

She paid for the whole thing cash on the barrelhead!

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis