kitty
noun



- a fund of money for communal use, made up of contributions from a group of people


- an amount of money gathered from several people to be spent on things that they will all share


- a fund in a poker game formed by a contribution from each pot; a pool of money


- a shared pool of money out of which particular expenses are paid



Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Collins English Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The origin of "kitty" is fascinatingly disconnected from the feline world. It likely derives from the late 19th-century Northern English kidcote, which referred to a small local prison or lock-up.

By the 1880s, the term had migrated into the parlance of card games (particularly poker), where it referred to the central "pool" of money that was locked up or held in the middle of the table. From the smoky backrooms of gambling halls, it gradually softened into general colloquial use, coming to mean any shared fund used for a collective purpose.

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CASH IDIOMS

- Dough - because it rises and everyone wants more of it.     

- Bread - same idea as dough, but older.     

- Cheddar / Cheese - hip-hop derived from government welfare cheese.     

- Scratch - referring to scraping funds together.     

- Green / Greenbacks - for the colour of US dollars.     

- Bacon - as in "bringing home the bacon."     

- Cabbage - green, leafy, like cash.     

- Clams - referencing historical shell currencies, still used on the East Coast.        

- Smackers / Smackaroos - "cost me 20 smackers for parking."     

- Benjamins - $100 bills have Benjamin Franklin on them.     

- Dead presidents - because US bills feature dead presidents.     

- Loot - framed around treasure or stolen goods.   

- Filthy lucre – money, usually with humorous or slightly disapproving overtones.

- Dosh - British for cash in general, "Got any dosh?"     

- Wonga - British, a bit cheeky, "He's got loads of wonga."   

- Lolly / Readies - British / Aussie, "Got the lolly?" / "Got the readies?"

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SYNONYMS

bank, accumulation, ante, cache, central fund, coffers, collection, common purse, float, hoard, jackpot, KITTY, nest egg, piggy bank, pool, pot, reserve, savings, shared fund, shared purse, slush fund, stash, treasury, war chest, whip-round

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like: