coin

¹

[koin]

noun

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

2. a number of such pieces.

3. Informal.,  money; cash.

   He's got plenty of coin in the bank.

4. Architecture.,  quoin.

5. Archaic.,  a corner cupboard of the 18th century.

adjective

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

   a coin laundry.

verb (used with object)

1. to make (coinage) by stamping metal.

   The mint is coining pennies.

2. to convert (metal) into coinage.

   The mint used to coin gold into dollars.

3. to make; invent; fabricate.

   to coin an expression.

4. Metalworking.,  to shape the surface of (metal) by squeezing between two dies.

verb (used without object)

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

COIN

²

[koin]

noun

1. counterinsurgency.

coin

/ kɔɪn /

noun

1. a metal disc or piece used as money

2. metal currency, as opposed to securities, paper currency, etc

3. architect a variant spelling of quoin

4. to treat a person in the way that he has treated others

5. the opposite view of a matter

verb

1. (tr) to make or stamp (coins)

2. (tr) to make into a coin

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

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

5. said ironically after one uses a cliché

Other Word Forms

• coiner noun
• coinable adjective
• miscoin verb
• recoin verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of coin¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English coyn(e), coygne, from Anglo-French; Middle French coin, cuigne “wedge, corner, die,” from Latin cuneus “wedge”

Origin of coin²

co(unter) in(surgency)

Word History and Origins

Origin of coin¹

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

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

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

2. 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.

3. coin money, to make or gain money rapidly.

   Those who own stock in that restaurant chain are coining money.

More idioms and phrases containing coin

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

Example Sentences

A petty criminal from Birmingham, by then in his 80s, claimed he and two others had stolen the silverware and melted it down to make fake half-crown coins.

From BBC

“Our audience is ragtag,” says Moninger, who first coined the “People’s Republic” term based on his love of obscure national anthems.

From Los Angeles Times

A new term, hyperscale, was coined by the tech industry to describe sites where the power requirement runs into tens of megawatts, before gigawatts, a thousand times bigger than megawatts, came on the scene.

From BBC

Gonzales-Day flips the coin, which has the unexpected effect of transforming identity from an answer into a question.

From Los Angeles Times

But student Ms Komba questions the old socialist slogan "one people, one nation", coined during the one-party Marxist-Leninist regime of the late 1970s.

From BBC