To pay up is to give someone the money that you owe them. Informal English. Examples of use: 1. You owe me £20. Come on, pay up! 2. Mr Brown was a good customer, he always paid up on time. 3. News headline: Judge tells woman – 'pay up or go back to jail'. 4. [...]
If you rent out something (or rent something out) that you own, you allow someone to pay you money so that they can use it. Examples of use: 1. They bought the house to rent out to students. 2. He rents his house out to tourists in the summer. 3. The field behind my house [...]
To shell out (or shell something out) is to spend a lot of money on something, especially when it is something you don't want to spend money on, or something you think is too expensive. Informal British English Examples of use: 1. We missed our flight and had to shell out £200 on [...]
1. To chip in something is to give an amount of money to help pay for something. Informal English. Examples of use: a. We are buying mum and dad an anniversary present. Would you like to chip in? b. We all chipped in and paid for David and Martina's honeymoon. c. Everyone in the office [...]
Not a sausage means nothing, zero or nil. This idiom derives from the Cockney rhyming slang 'sausage and mash' which means 'cash'. Not a sausage originally meant to have no cash (money). Examples of use: 1. Do you have any money left for a taxi? No, not a sausage. 2. Is there any rice [...]
To save up something (or save something up) is to keep money so that you have enough to buy something in the future. Examples of use: 1. We are saving up for a house. 2. You will have to save up if you want to buy that expensive car. 3. He saved up for [...]
To hold the purse strings is to be in control of the money spent. This idiom has its origins in a time when purses to hold money were usually closed with a draw-string (as in the picture above). Examples of use: 1. He earns the money, but she holds the purse strings. 2. He held [...]
