peseta
Americannoun
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pesetas
plural
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a bronze coin and monetary unit of Spain and Andorra until the euro was adopted, equal to 100 centimos. P., Pta.
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a former silver coin of Spain and Spanish America, equal to two reals; pistareen.
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a former monetary unit of Equatorial Guinea: replaced by the ekuele in 1973.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of peseta
1805–15; < Spanish, diminutive of pesa a weight. See peso
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.
See Examples For:
The Soviet Union, more cannily, traded arms, planes, and tanks for Spain’s sizable gold reserves, the transfer of which crashed the value of the peseta.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 18, 2016
Once the peseta disappeared, this escape valve was gone and the economy began losing competitiveness in its main European markets.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2010
Starting in 1927 with four noisy, German-made, trimotor planes, it made not a single peseta until 1946.
From Time Magazine Archive
No. 2 retired to a $250,000 mansion; No. 3 parlayed $1,000,000 into $30 million to $40 million; No. 4 was known as "the peseta stealer."
From Time Magazine Archive
We explained our dilemma and offered the one peseta, ninety centimes, which was marked in his book and our own, as the full first class tariff for twelve kilometers.
From Heroic Spain by Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly
But the case of Mr. Solà was different: Ms. Marí recalled her family was paid nearly double the normal amount for care, 300 pesetas per month, a large sum to them at the time.
From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2021
The cult classic was shot at weekends, on 16mm, with a budget of 500,000 pesetas.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 11, 2019
There is no way Spain can break this vicious circle by itself, unless it actually leaves the euro zone and prints new pesetas with abandon.
From Economist ● Nov. 8, 2012
Owing euros to depositors, and getting devalued drachmas, or lira, or escudos or pesetas from borrowers is one way to make capital vanish.
From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2011
"I borrowed a hundred pesetas from Montoya to-night."
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
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.
