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Glite Dictionary
fast buck

fast buck

3 7.9
Money earned quickly, often by dishonest or easy ways
  • noun
  • Slang
translation icon : dinero fácil
  • I just think it's now all too easy for developers to justify making a zombie game or DLC to make a fast buck.
  • make a fast buck
  • fast-buck artists

Examples

  • They just want to make that fast buck.

    Academic text (2013)

  • The premiums don't pay health care professionals—surgeons, doctors, nurses—they pay Republicans in suits and ambulance chasers out to make a fast buck.

    Blog text (13)

  • These guys are probably also trying to make a fast buck.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • And believe me, if there's a fast buck to be made.

    Savage Sisters (1974)

  • You 2 are just some fly-by-night operation looking to make a fast buck.

    Daddy Day Care (2003)

  • I think this former "friend" is just a guy trying to turn a fast buck, and maybe score some "hush money" so he'll simply go away.

    Blog text (21)

  • When Smedley Faversham comprehended the immutable concept of time travel, he decided to make a fast buck out of it.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Many people turn to risky investments in hopes of making a fast buck.

  • The con artist was known for his tricks to earn a fast buck without hard work.

  • During the economic crisis, some businesses focused on ways to make a fast buck at the expense of others.

Synonyms

quick buck
vsfast buck
  • Informal
9 5.3

Money made quickly, often with little work or by dishonest ways

is the same idea but highlights dishonesty as common
easy money
vsfast buck
  • Informal
8 3.2

Money someone earns with little work

is more often quick and sometimes dishonest rather than only easy
filthy lucre
vsfast buck
  • Archaic
1 9.8

Money that people get by dishonest or wrong actions

is about quick gain often, not only moral wrongness
money for old rope
vsfast buck
  • Archaic
8.7

Easy pay you get with little or no work

is used for quick or dishonest gain, not just effortless profit
money for jam
vsfast buck
  • Archaic
8.3

Easy extra pay for very little work

is seen as quick and often dishonest rather than merely easy

Surface Forms

fast buck singular
fast bucks plural

Morphology

fast + buck

A B1 learner who knows 'fast' as 'quick' and 'buck' as 'dollar' can reasonably infer the basic idea of quickly earned money, so part of the meaning is compositional. However, the usual connotation of being earned cheaply, easily or dishonestly is pragmatic and idiomatic and not fully predictable from the constituents, so prior exposure is needed for the full sense.

Etymology

The expression fast buck may come from the picture of someone grabbing money quickly: fast means quick and buck is slang for a dollar, because the word 'buck' once referred to a deerskin used for trade. So, it now means 'money earned quickly and often dishonestly'.