war chest

noun

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

war chest

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of war chest¹

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Example Sentences

Evading sanctions is a national priority as Russia tries to shore up its war chest, an especially urgent task this year as the country’s economy has begun to falter.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

For Russia, any decline in its oil exports would directly dent the Kremlin’s war chest, since energy sales account for as much as a third of the country’s budget revenue.

Read more on 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?

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France -- which briefly detained one of the vessels recently -- has called for tougher actions to crimp the key source of revenues for Moscow's Ukraine war chest.

Read more on Barron's

At the time the then Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, had said it would "drain Russia's war chest – and every ruble we take from Putin's hands helps save Ukrainian lives".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• exchequer 
• treasury