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tea money

American  

noun

  1. (especially in parts of China) a bribe used to facilitate any business dealing.


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.

If necessary they would have collected the tea money.

From The Guardian • Mar. 18, 2011

The gist was that it's all a bit of a shame, a bit unfortunate, about the level of someone denying allegations that they had forgotten to pay their tea money.

From The Guardian • Apr. 28, 2010

Office "peons" no longer demand "tea money" for leading callers to officials.

From Time Magazine Archive

No longer is "tea money" necessary to get in to see a government official.

From Time Magazine Archive

Tipped the hotel five yen as tea money.

From Botchan (Master Darling) by Morri, Yasotaro