cold cash

American  

noun

1. money immediately available.

   They will accept payment in cold cash only.

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cold cash Idioms  

1. Also, hard cash. Actual currency (bills and coins); money immediately available, paid at the time of a purchase. For example, Will you lower the price if I pay in cold cash instead of using a credit card? or We have only a limited amount of hard cash—the rest is in accounts receivable. [First half of 1900s]

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Etymology

Origin of cold cash

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

“From nativity to church, to family, to commerce” goes the commonly held view of the season’s history, “a story of high beginnings, a cosy, warm middle and the chill of cold cash at the end.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 20, 2017

Abstract monochrome painting, once the modern representation of an ethereal spiritual condition, is transformed into cold cash.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2016

Today, the government’s aid comes chiefly in the form of insurance subsidies—reliable and robust protections against losses that many farmers and their lobbyists hoped would be every bit as effective as cold cash.

From Scientific American • May 28, 2015

If the Justice Department's penalty was not good enough, then from a "cold cash" standpoint, denying an exemption was unlikely to move the needle further, he said.

From Reuters • Jan. 15, 2015

"I wouldn't cross that rock wall for a hundred thousand dollars in cold cash."

From The Yukon Trail A Tale of the North by Wolfe, George Ellis