cash-strapped

British

adjective

short of money; impoverished

cash-strapped local authorities

"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

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.

Instead, some cash-strapped officers have been taking other steps.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 21, 2026

Coming so soon after the economic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, already cash-strapped governments really felt the squeeze.

From BBC • Mar. 19, 2026

This isn’t the story of a cash-strapped population unable to spend.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 26, 2026

Unstated was how, precisely, the cash-strapped state would pay for such a bounty.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2026

Often these were cash-strapped independent merchants and laborers, and I was always surprised by the joy she took in saving a few dollars at their expense.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

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