pin money
- any small sum set aside for nonessential minor expenditures.
- (formerly) an allowance of money given by a husband to his wife for her personal expenditures.
Origin of pin money
Examples from the Web for pin money
Historical Examples of pin money
The point was, whether a wife should or should not have pin-money.
Tales And Novels, Volume 5 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
All that merry-making was the source of the Cabaal's pin-money, for the other seasons of the year.
Mayflower (Flor de mayo)Vicente Blasco Ibez
He must be got rid of before the women had been beguiled into spending all their pin-money.
The DoomsmanVan Tassel Sutphen
She had her own pin-money income, and she loathed the chain of her title.
Lord Ormont and his Aminta, CompleteGeorge Meredith
Even now the allowance which a lady is given for dress is called “pin-money.”
The Heritage of DressWilfred Mark Webb
pin money
- an allowance by a husband to his wife for personal expenditure
- money saved or earned to be used for incidental expenses
Idioms and Phrases with pin money
pin money
Small amounts of money for incidental expenses, as in Grandma usually gives the children some pin money whenever she visits. This expression originally signified money given by a husband to his wife for small personal expenditures such as pins, which were very costly items in centuries past. A will recorded at York in 1542 listed a bequest: “I give my said daughter Margarett my lease of the parsonage . . . to buy her pins.” [Early 1500s]