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

---

hard cash Idioms  

1. see cold cash.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hard cash

At least the latter pay their way in cold, hard cash.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 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

The impoverished North has moved to revive inbound tourism to earn much-needed hard cash in the face of sanctions over its nuclear programmes, developing lavish coast and mountain resorts.

From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026

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

Some few received their pay in hard cash, and went off to other wars; but the large majority, Breton and Angevin, French and Fleming, no less than Norman, wanted land.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 5 English History by Various