mad money

noun

1
: discretionary money set aside for an emergency or for personal use
Mad money is a bit of cash set aside for some personal fun …Jerry Tarde
I tell everyone I am semi-retired. The theory is to be able to find a few small side jobs to just make a little "mad money" using the skills acquired through a decades-long career.Michael Baldauf
Search the apartment or house carefully. Some people conceal cash or jewelry in their homes. If there is a library, look through the books. They are a favorite repository for mad moneyDavid Bernheim
The Pine Wood Elementary P.T.A. in the county gives each teacher $100 for classroom "mad money."Michael Winerip
2
old-fashioned : money that a woman carries to pay her fare home in case a date ends badly (as in a quarrel)
I was born too late for mad money. By the time I was old enough to date, the idea that a woman would leave her house with just enough cash to get herself home was so anachronistic, it verged on ludicrous.Rebecca Johnson

Examples of mad money in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Against the backdrop of the mad money, the veteran quarterback looks like a major bargain for the Las Vegas Raiders. Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY, 14 Mar. 2023 That was before Monday, when Voyager Digital, the crypto brokerage that Cuban partnered with last fall, filed Chapter 11, apparently costing some Mavs fans their mad money in the process. Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 11 July 2022 The untitled project follows a Swiss art dealer and Russian oligarch caught in a web of secrets, lies and mad money, telling the inside story of an international, billion-dollar game where power is the ultimate currency. Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 1 Apr. 2022 Ever-rising stock prices, fed by the Federal Reserve Board’s hedge-fund bailout and mad money printing approach to monetary policy, meant the only sucker’s game was not buying stocks. Los Angeles Times, 2 Feb. 2022 Others are hobbyists, trading a chunk of their retirement portfolios or some mad money. Emily Flitter, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mad money.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of mad money was in 1922

Dictionary Entries Near mad money

Cite this Entry

“Mad money.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mad%20money. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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