purse

[purs]

noun

1. handbag.

2. Also called change purse. a small bag, pouch, or case for carrying money.

3. anything resembling a purse in appearance, use, etc.

4. a sum of money offered as a prize or reward.

5. a sum of money collected as a present or the like.

6. money, resources, or wealth.

verb (used with object)

pursed, pursing 

1. to contract into folds or wrinkles; pucker.

   to purse one's lips.

2. to put into a purse.

purse

/ pɜːs /

noun

1. a small bag or pouch, often made of soft leather, for carrying money, esp coins

2. a woman's handbag

3. anything resembling a small bag or pouch in form or function

4. wealth; funds

5. a sum of money that is offered, esp as a prize

verb

1. (tr) to contract (the mouth, lips, etc) into a small rounded shape

Other Word Forms

• purseless adjective
• purselike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of purse¹

First recorded before 1100; (noun) Middle English, Old English purs, blend of pusa “bag” (cognate with Old Norse posi ) and Medieval Latin bursa “bag” (ultimately from Greek býrsa “hide, leather”); (verb) Middle English pursen “to put in a purse,” derivative of the noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of purse¹

Old English purs, probably from Late Latin bursa bag, ultimately from Greek: leather

Idioms and Phrases

• can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

Example Sentences

There were also tensions and petty jealousies between different sets of increasingly overwhelmed foster parents and with Sothea, who controlled the project’s purse strings.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

In the current, so-called third design generation, the hood slopes down to form the stiff upper lip of a mouth pursed with purpose.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

That is Article I, Section 9—the bedrock of Congress’s power of the purse.

Read more on Barron's

Windsor, wearing a grey sweatshirt, sighed and pursed his lips in the dock as the verdicts were announced.

Read more on BBC

Along the way, we get some classics, like the image of a burlesque dancer "glowing like the end of a cigarette"; or comparing a critic's barbs to "a toy chihuahua barking from a tiny purse".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• bag 
• handbag 
• pocket 
• pocketbook 
• pouch 
• wallet