coin

[koin]

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. 2018

Related Words for coining

piece, money, cash, currency, dough, jack, scratch, gold, chips, silver, change, bread, copper, specie, doubloon, mintage, coinage, manufacture, compose, formulate

Examples from the Web for coining

Contemporary Examples of coining

Pele, by the way, is often given credit for coining the phrase O Jogo Bonito—the Beautiful Game.
The Literature of Futbol: 11 Great Books About Soccer
Robert Birnbaum
June 25, 2014
But time will remember him most vividly for coining the term “sack,” as in “sacking the quarterback,” which he did a lot.
The Deaths You Missed This Year
Malcolm Jones, Jimmy So, Michael Moynihan, Caitlin Dickson
December 30, 2013
According to Emily Hauser, our coining of the phrase “Jew-washing” was disingenuous and part of a nefarious “McCarthy-esque” plot.
The Debate on Jew-Washing—Beyond Ideology
Gerald M. Steinberg, Yitzhak Santis
August 13, 2012

Historical Examples of coining

Coining in the year I now write of was the fashionable crime.
Night and Morning, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Unless it's true that you're coining money in a way that's not legal.
Mary Louise in the Country
L. Frank Baum (AKA Edith Van Dyne)
Copper is used by the government for coining one-cent pieces.
Checking the Waste
Mary Huston Gregory
Well, if you must know the worst, they are in prison, on a charge of coining.
Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks
Bracebridge Hemyng
As for the evidence of coining, the flood had swept all that away.
Put Yourself in His Place
Charles Reade

British Dictionary definitions for coining

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 coining

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 coining

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)