shinplaster
Americannoun
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a plaster for the shin or leg.
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Informal. (formerly)
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a piece of paper money of a denomination lower than one dollar.
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money of little value, as that issued on insufficient security.
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noun
Etymology
Origin of shinplaster
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Roberto Lopez, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, flew to Washington to beg for mercy or at least for time to go into the shinplaster business.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mine was on a horse at the head of the procession, but I had a ten-cent "shinplaster," with which I bought some biscuits of the man.
From The Bright Side of Prison Life Experience, In Prison and Out, of an Involuntary Soujouner in Rebellion by Swiggett, Samuel A.
"Wal," ses I, "Kernel, now kin you tell me why that fifty-cent shinplaster is like the war?"
From Letters of Major Jack Downing, of the Downingville Militia by Smith, Seba
Marse Adam pull out a big flat black pocket-book and gived me a shinplaster, and say: 'Jesse, ever time your basket h'ist de beam of de steelyards to 100, you gits a shinplaster.'
From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves South Carolina Narratives, Part 4 by Work Projects Administration
For change the barber gave them a sort of shinplaster money, each piece of which bore the legend: "Good for one shave or ten cents at the Palace Shaving Parlors, 16 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Ill."
From A Man for the Ages A Story of the Builders of Democracy by Adams, John Wolcott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
