pocket money

noun

1. money for small, current expenses.

pocket money

noun

1. a small weekly sum of money given to children by parents as an allowance
2. money for day-to-day spending, incidental expenses, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of pocket money¹

First recorded in 1625–35

Idioms and Phrases

Also, spending money . Cash for incidental or minor expenses, as in They don't believe in giving the children pocket money without asking them to do chores , or Can I borrow a dollar? I'm out of all my spending money . The first term, dating from the early 1600s, alludes to keeping small sums in one's pocket; the second alludes to money that may be spent (as opposed to saved) and dates from the late 1500s.

Example Sentences

When his parents sent him to boarding school in Maine instead, he saved his pocket money and bought a bus ticket back home.

From Time

For example, in the 1970s, a company called Kelly Services had this whole advertising campaign for women who needed pocket money.

From ProPublica

He gave science lectures to his older brothers and local kids whose attendance he assured by paying them from his pocket money.

From Nautilus

Eleven million “self-employed” people—many of whom should be treated as employees—are dependent on this program while the companies they work for pocket money that should have been set aside to cover these costs.

From Fortune

This was not some cushy job for pocket money either, as Downs told me.

From Washington Blade

He told them he had bought a Scalextric car set with his pocket money when he was younger.

From The Daily Beast

Sondra Wiener, forced to make pocket money like an out-of-work laborer, endures the pity of her neighbors.

From The Daily Beast

The money in the possession of "Commercial depositors" we shall call "till money," and the rest "pocket money."

From Project Gutenberg

Some of them perhaps get half-a-crown a month as pocket money; but that will neither kill nor cure a man.

From Project Gutenberg

You have worked him like a navvy, and never given him enough pocket money to keep him in tobacco even.

From Project Gutenberg

At home my chums and I used to part with our pocket money at a tea-room called Sargents.

From Project Gutenberg

Beauties and joys he was to keep for pocket-money; small change is sometimes great gain.

From Project Gutenberg