coin

[koin]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR coin ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a piece of metal stamped and issued by the authority of a government for use as money.

a number of such pieces.

Informal. money; cash: He's got plenty of coin in the bank.

Architecture. quoin(defs 1, 2).

Archaic. a corner cupboard of the 18th century.

adjective

operated by, or containing machines operated by, inserting a coin or coins into a slot: a coin laundry.

verb (used with object)

to make (coinage) by stamping metal: The mint is coining pennies.

to convert (metal) into coinage: The mint used to coin gold into dollars.

to make; invent; fabricate: to coin an expression.

Metalworking. to shape the surface of (metal) by squeezing between two dies.Compare emboss(def 3).

verb (used without object)

British Informal. to counterfeit, especially to make counterfeit money.

Idioms

coin money, Informal. to make or gain money rapidly: Those who own stock in that restaurant chain are coining money.

pay someone back in his/her own coin, to reciprocate or behave toward in a like way, especially inamicably; retaliate: If they persist in teasing you, pay them back in their own coin.

the other side of the coin, the other side, aspect, or point of view; alternative consideration.

Origin of coin

1300–50; Middle English coyn(e), coygne < Anglo-French; Middle French coin, cuigne wedge, corner, die < Latin cuneus wedge

Related formscoin·a·ble, adjectivecoin·er, nounmis·coin, verbre·coin, verb (used with object)un·coined, adjectivewell-coined, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for coin money

coin

noun

a metal disc or piece used as money

metal currency, as opposed to securities, paper currency, etcRelated adjective: nummary

architect a variant spelling of quoin

pay a person back in his own coin to treat a person in the way that he has treated others

the other side of the coin the opposite view of a matter

verb

(tr) to make or stamp (coins)

(tr) to make into a coin

(tr) to fabricate or invent (words, etc)

(tr) informal to make (money) rapidly (esp in the phrase coin it in)

to coin a phrase said ironically after one uses a cliché

Derived Formscoinable, adjectivecoiner, noun

Word Origin for coin

C14: from Old French: stamping die, from Latin cuneus wedge

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

Word Origin and History for coin money

coin

c.1300, "a wedge," from Old French coing (12c.) "a wedge; stamp; piece of money; corner, angle," from Latin cuneus "a wedge." The die for stamping metal was wedge-shaped, and the English word came to mean "thing stamped, a piece of money" by late 14c. (a sense that already had developed in French). Cf. quoin, which split off from this word 16c. Modern French coin is "corner, angle, nook." Coins were first struck in western Asia Minor in 7c. B.C.E.; Greek tradition and Herodotus credit the Lydians with being first to make and use coins of silver and gold.

coin

"to coin money," mid-14c., from coin (n.). Related: Coined; coining. To coin a phrase is late 16c. A Middle English word for minter was coin-smiter.

Idioms and Phrases with coin money

coin money

Also, mint money. Make a great deal of money easily or very quickly. For example, With a monopoly on the market he could coin money, or These highly motivated realtors just about enable the agency to mint money. This hyperbolic expression dates from the mid-1800s.

coin

In addition to the idiom beginning with coin

coin money

also see:

other side of the coin
pay back (in someone's own coin)