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Synonyms

hard cash

American  

noun

  1. actual money as distinguished from checks or credit.

hard cash British  

noun

  1. money or payment in the form of coins or notes rather than cheques or credit

"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
hard cash Idioms  

  1. see cold cash.

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.

He wants cold hard cash, plus a couple of private islands, planes and ultra-luxury yachts.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2026

Contemporaries were convinced that his motivation for publishing Mansfield’s ephemera wasn’t so much reverence for her talent as greed for hard cash.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

On Sunday there is nothing at stake other than likes, shares, broadcast ratings and cold, hard cash.

From Barron's • Dec. 27, 2025

There is only emptiness: a hollow space where a heart should be, ready to be filled with cold, hard cash.

From Salon • Nov. 21, 2025

To a young man whose salary is only two hundred a year, the unexpected accession to two thousand pounds, hard cash, seems like a great fortune.

From A Life's Secret A Novel by Wood, Mrs. Henry

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.