scrip

¹ American  

[skrip] / skrɪp /

noun

1. a receipt, certificate, list, or similar brief piece of writing.

2. a scrap of paper.

3. Finance.

   1. a certificate representing a fraction of a share of stock.

   2. a certificate to be exchanged for goods, as at a company store.

   3. a certificate indicating the right of the holder to receive payment later in the form of cash, goods, or land.

4. paper currency in denominations of less than one dollar, formerly issued in the United States.

---

scrip ² American  

[skrip] / skrɪp /

noun

Archaic.

1. a bag or wallet carried by wayfarers.

---

scrip ³ American  

[skrip] / skrɪp /

noun

Informal.

1. a prescription, as for a drug.

---

scrip ¹ British  

/ skrɪp /

noun

1. a written certificate, list, etc

2. a small scrap, esp of paper with writing on it

3. finance

   1. a certificate representing a claim to part of a share of stock

   2. the shares allocated in a bonus issue

---

scrip ² British  

/ skrɪp /

noun

1. archaic a small bag or wallet, as carried by pilgrims

---

scrip ³ British  

/ skrɪp /

noun

1. informal a medical prescription

---

Other Word Forms

• scripless adjective

Etymology

Origin of scrip¹

First recorded in 1610–20; earliest sense “scrap of paper” perhaps a variant of scrap ¹; subsequent sense development shows influence of script and subscription, with scrip ¹ def. 3a specifically a shortening of subscription receipt

Origin of scrip²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English scrip(pe), skreppe “bag, satchel, pilgrim's purse,” from Old French escharpe, escherpe, escreppe, Medieval Latin scrippa, scrippum, scerpa, schrippa “pilgrim's pack,” via Frankish from Latin scirpea “large reed basket,” derivative of scirpus “reed, bulrush”

Origin of scrip³

First recorded in 1915–20; shortening of prescription

Example Sentences

Miners were paid in scrip, the company’s version of money that could only be used at the company store or in the businesses nearby that honored it.

From Salon • Oct. 28, 2025

“I never asked to see a scrip, and I never asked to go up to the set, even though all my gay friends were saying, ‘Are you out of your mind?’

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 4, 2023

They lived in barracks or tents and were paid — 80 cents a day in scrip — to work for local farmers.

From Washington Post • Mar. 12, 2022

The unsolicited cash proposal with an option for AGL shareholders to elect a scrip alternative provided limited other information about how the deal would be structured, Botten said.

From Reuters • Feb. 21, 2022

Business was good—or rather it would have been good if we had had anything to sell, and people had had anything to pay for it with besides commissary scrip.

From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier