cash

Less common meanings

4. 4
   exchange a checkverbtransitive

   To exchange a check for money in the form of bills and coins.

   Without a bank account, he had to cash every paycheck at a store that charged a fee.

   She cashed the refund check and paid her rent in full.

   UsageUsually cash a check; a bank or store may cash it for you, often for a fee.

   Similarredeem, exchange

5. 5
   store registernounCanadacountable

   The register or the counter in a business where payments are taken and money is stored.

   Two new clerks were trained to run the cash during the holiday rush.

   He counted the money in the cash at the end of his shift.

   UsageUsually the cash with a place word: pay at the cash, take these to the cash.

   Similarregister, till

   Note

   Josh Freed's 2017 column on Apple stores shows its everyday ring. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Josh Freed used this sense of cash in a 2017 column discussing Apple stores; Wiktionary identifies it as a Montreal Gazette column dated December 30, 2017. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   very cooladjectiveslang

   Excellent or impressive; very cool.

   The whole party was absolutely cash.

   Those sneakers are pretty cash, honestly.

   Similarcool, awesome, sick, great

   Oppositelame

7. 7
   nounarchaiccountable

   A place or box where money is stored, deposited, and paid out.

   She was said to have amassed a great sum of money for ill use ; 20,000l. are known to be in her cash ;

   1852, Theresa Lewis, quoting a letter from John More to Ralph Winwood

   Note

   The sense nearest the French money-box behind the everyday word: a cash was a place, not a sum. Older writing calls a bank a general cash, where every man lodges his money, and says a fortune of 20,000l. lies in her cash. Read such lines as coffer or treasury. A modern reader who hears banknotes will misread them. Unlike the money it held, this cash is countable. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • The money word cash derives from French caisse, meaning money-box. en.wiktionary.org
   • Cash historically denoted a place or box holding money; this sense is countable. en.wiktionary.org
   • An older passage describes a bank as a general cash where every man lodges his money. en.wiktionary.org
   • An older passage describes £20,000 as being in her cash. gutenberg.org
   • In these passages cash means a coffer or treasury, rather than its monetary contents. en.wiktionary.org
   • The storage-place sense is countable. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To disband a group, or to do away with or kill someone or something.

   He cashed the old souldiers, and supplied their roumes with yong beginners.

   1564, Arthur Golding, Abridgment of the histories of Trogus Pompeius

   Similardisband, dismiss, kill

   Note

   A third cash, tied to cashier rather than to money or coins. Arthur Golding writes in 1564 that "he cashed the old souldiers" and filled their places with young beginners. That means he disbanded the troops; he did not pay them. Read the word this way in early texts. The meaning "kill" stretches the same idea of getting rid of someone. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • The disbanding verb cash has a separate etymology associated with cashier. en.wiktionary.org
   • Golding's translation containing the quotation was first published in 1564. grubstreetproject.net
   • Golding's wording describes cashing the old soldiers and replacing them with young beginners. en.wiktionary.org
   • Cashed in this quotation means disbanded, rather than paid. en.wiktionary.org
   • The same verb also has the meanings do away with and kill. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   Chinese coinnounhistoricalcountable

   Any of various small coins of low value formerly used in East, Southeast, and South Asia, especially the Chinese copper coin with a square hole and a small coin of southern India.

   Merchants hauled heavy strings of cash to the market.

   Each cash was cast from copper and pierced with a square hole.

   Note

   Here the name of a small south Indian coin stretches eastward. English followed Portuguese cas, caixa and related forms in applying it to similar low-value coins of Southeast and East Asia, above all the imperial Chinese copper piece. The word appears in Alexander Armstrong's In a Mule Litter to the Tomb of Confucius (1895), an account of travel in China.

10. 10
    noun

    An occasion of winning a money prize, especially in a game or contest.
11. 11
    verbslang

    To receive a payout by placing well enough in a tournament.