king's ransom

noun

1. an extremely large amount of money.

   The painting was sold for a king's ransom.

Idioms and Phrases

A huge sum of money, as in That handmade rug must have cost a king's ransom. This metaphoric expression originally referred to the sum required to release a king from captivity. [Late 1400s]

Example Sentences

The lack of incisiveness in Martin's team is remarkable for a set of players put together for a relative king's ransom.

Read more on BBC

Kurosawa’s “High and Low” was based on the 1959 Ed McBain cop novel “King’s Ransom,” about a moral dilemma that becomes an identity crisis for a wealthy man.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

I wished I could just hide in the back, but Samir had made a show of thanking his “good and faithful Monkey, who was well worth the king’s ransom of six bolts of silk.”

Read more on Literature

Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” released in 1963 and starring Toshiro Mifune, was adapted from the Ed McBain novel “King’s Ransom.”

Read more on Seattle Times

He worked long hours as a TV editor; he wasn’t rich, but had no debt and earned what seemed to me then like a king’s ransom: something like a grand a week.

Read more on New York Times