cash, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cash v.¹

1. (US) to lend or give money.

1854		M.J. Holmes Tempest and Sunshine 105: Tempest is in a desput hurry to know whether I’m goin’ to cash over and send her to market in New Orleans.
1882		Sweet & Knox Sketches from ‘Texas Siftings’ 41: Cash down, quick, or I’ll bounce you off at the next station we come to .
1995		A. Heckerling Clueless [film script] Cash me a five, I’ll pay you back.

2. to pass counterfeit money.

1985

(ref. to 1950s) N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 16: Instead of going to school I’d go ‘cashing’ with Johnny Mazzolla [...] we’d go cashing counterfeit twenties he picked up from Beansie the counterfeiter.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

cash in

see separate entries.

cash one’s pistol (v.) [joc. image of presenting a pistol at the counter rather than a cheque]

(US, Western) to rob a bank at gunpoint.

1880

C.L. Martin A Sketch of Sam Bass (1956) 146: We didn’t want any racket until we could make a draw and cash our old white pistols.

cash out (v.)

1. to die.

1965

C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 313: Everybody was trying to either cash out on Saturday night or cash somebody else out.

2. to kill oneself.

1967

‘Iceberg Slim’ Trick Baby (1996) 9: You’re Iceberg Slim, the pimp. You can’t cash out like a square.

3. to murder, to kill.

1965		see sense 1.
1967		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 124: I’m going over there right now and cash them out.

cash up (v.)

1. to pay up, to pay over; thus to pay one’s debts.

1840		R. Barham ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 54: Antonio grew / In a deuce of a stew, / For he could not cash up, spite of all he could do.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 120: The gentlemen [...] vowed they would not ‘cash up’ until they had witnessed something more for their money.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 May 18/4: We are sorry for the imprisoned evangelists, the Reverends Dowie and Peter Campbell, who, as the world knows, are now in gaol at Melbourne – the former for howling in the streets and assaulting bailiffs, and the latter for not ‘cashing up’ to the ‘missus’ in accordance with a court order.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 July 12/1: [H]e can appeal to the Privy Council, but that would cost money, and we don’t suppose either of his wives will cash up.
1891		J. Maitland Amer. Sl. Dict.

2. (Aus.) to earn money.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 187/2: C.20.

3. (US campus) to work something out.

1973

Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 1: cash up – solve, think through, analyze.

cash v.1

SE in slang uses

In phrases

cash v.¹