hard cash

American

noun

actual money as distinguished from checks or credit.

hard cash British

noun

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

see cold cash.

Example Sentences

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hard cash

You say your emergency fund will be depleted by your move, but I hope that you will gain some hard cash when you sell your home and downsize.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

It’s built a long-standing resale market where nerds and weeaboos everywhere turned Charizards into cold, hard cash.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026

Young tech companies once might have complemented lower salaries with generous equity packages, but now they’re turning to cold hard cash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 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

Your sword must be of gold and paper; your breastplate of hard cash; your charger of gilt-edged securities.

From Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley

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