pin money

American  

noun

1. any small sum set aside for nonessential minor expenditures.

2. (formerly) an allowance of money given by a husband to his wife for her personal expenditures.

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pin money British  

noun

1. an allowance by a husband to his wife for personal expenditure

2. money saved or earned to be used for incidental expenses

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pin money Idioms  

1. 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]

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Other Word Forms

• pin-money adjective

Etymology

Origin of pin money

First recorded in 1535–45

Example Sentences

In her columns, Fern returned to the theme of a woman’s financial freedom, and her right to more than just pin money.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 27, 2026

While Boulogne relied on pin money, Calais relied on needle – or more exactly bobbin – money.

From Time • Oct. 26, 2016

People still pin money on the statue for charity.

From New York Times • Aug. 30, 2010

They started setting it up for pin money at high school dances, and then for events at Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster.

From New York Times • Jan. 28, 2010

There was a first-rate shirt, a pair of trousers that looked brand-new, knitted socks, and storebought suspenders that must have been bought out of Aunt Pretty’s pin money.

From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney