war chest

American  

noun

1. money set aside or scheduled for a particular purpose or activity, as for a political campaign or organizational drive.

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war chest British  

noun

1. a fund collected for a specific purpose, such as an election campaign

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Etymology

Origin of war chest

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Example Sentences

While vulnerable kids have found a refuge at Altadena Girls, in the weeks and months after the fires charitable groups with large public profiles and significant war chests faced questions about their impacts.

From Los Angeles Times

Kiffin has said that the best jobs in college football are the ones whose NIL collectives, which fund so-called “name, image and likeness” payments, had the biggest war chests to spend on players.

From The Wall Street Journal

But even with such a massive war chest, is it possible to neutralize the threat of all disease by the year 2100?

From The Wall Street Journal

Neither did the temporary suspension of export taxes for grain dealers, which generated dollar inflows but didn’t fatten the bank’s war chest because there was also lots of peso selling.

From The Wall Street Journal

It costs hundreds of thousands to rebuild even a basic home — if you didn’t have a war chest, that’s huge, to find those resources.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• exchequer
• treasury