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

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".

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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.

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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.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Russia relies on oil and gas exports for roughly a quarter of its budget revenues, which is funding its war chest.

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The NIL war chest was stocked, resulting in greater recruiting success.

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Related Words

• exchequer 
• treasury