petty cash

noun

: cash kept on hand for payment of minor items

Examples of petty cash in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Yes, there’s a bit of petty cash filtering in here and there for their little projects. Heidi Blake, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023 Yet the money, little more than petty cash for Meta, matters less than the message. Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 May 2023 Qualifying expenses include wages, invoices and even petty cash. Zoe Hewitt, Variety, 21 June 2023 Take all my petty cash, Joe. Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 26 Aug. 2022 Johnson, who has called for tightening election laws after the 2020 election, suggested performing audits without advance notice in a certain number of precincts and likened the process to a business auditing petty cash as a signal to root out any potential fraud. Bill Glauber, Journal Sentinel, 5 Oct. 2022 One of my first intern tasks at an esteemed magazine over a decade ago, other than picking up thousands of dollars of petty cash for an unnamed editor—another time—was fetching a 64-ounce tub of Magnolia Bakery banana pudding for a staffer’s going away party. Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 26 Aug. 2022 To the extent there’s been solidarity, it’s been in the petty cash. Jason Gale, Bloomberg.com, 3 Nov. 2020 That's petty cash compared to her total net worth, though. Sarah Felbin, Women's Health, 10 Feb. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'petty cash.' 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

1715, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of petty cash was in 1715

Dictionary Entries Near petty cash

Cite this Entry

“Petty cash.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/petty%20cash. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

petty cash

noun
: a small amount of money kept on hand in an office to pay for minor items

More from Merriam-Webster on petty cash

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!