out-of-pocket
Americanadjective
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paid out in cash or from one's own financial resources and sometimes reimbursed.
My out-of-pocket travel expenses included taking business clients to dinner.
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without funds or assets.
an out-of-pocket student who stayed with us.
adjective
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(postpositive) having lost money, as in a commercial enterprise
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without money to spend
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(prenominal) (of expenses) unbudgeted and paid for in cash
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Lacking money; also, having suffered a financial loss, as in We can't go; I'm out of pocket right now . William Congreve had it in The Old Bachelor (1693): “But egad, I'm a little out of pocket at present.” [Late 1600s]
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Referring to actual money spent, as in I had to pay the hotel bill out of pocket, but I know I'll be reimbursed . This expression sometimes occurs as a hyphenated adjective mainly in the phrase out-of-pocket expenses , as in My out-of-pocket expenses for business travel amounted to more than a thousand dollars . [Late 1800s]
Etymology
Origin of out-of-pocket
First recorded in 1880–85
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.
Told baldness is generally seen as an aesthetic problem covered out-of-pocket, Lee retorted that young people with thinning hair view their plight as a “matter of survival.”
Cheaper insulin: Large group health plans must cap the out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 for a 30-day supply under SB 40.
From Los Angeles Times
But the IRA capped Medicare out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000, shifting the liability for higher-cost drugs from patients to Part D plans and manufacturers.
He’s heard of more incidents where drivers are paying their deductible along with an out-of-pocket portion the insurer did not pay.
From MarketWatch
Around a third couldn’t pay off an unexpected $500 in healthcare out-of-pocket costs, according to a recent survey from the Nationwide Retirement Institute.
From Barron's
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.
