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Glite Dictionary
to hand in the till

to hand in the till

1 9.0
To steal money from your workplace, for example from a cash register
  • idiom
  • UK
translation icon : meter la mano en la caja
  • The cashier was caught with her hand in the till after she took money from the register.

Examples

  • The danger with challenging poor scientists is that the whole affair becomes a witch hunt like that of politicians caught with their hands in the till.

    Blog text (23)

  • They caught you with the hand in the till?

    Buddy Buddy (1981)

  • I think one of his bartenders has got his hand in the till.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I'm sure he's got his hand in the till.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • It used to be our elected officials at least appeared to be statesmen of impeccable character and integrity and could be embarrassed or shamed when caught with their hand in the till, lying or in a compromised position.

    Blog text (16)

  • When the company audited its accounts, they discovered that one employee had their hand in the till for months.

  • After noticing discrepancies in the cash drawer, the manager suspected that someone had their hand in the till.

Synonyms

to embezzle
vsto hand in the till
28 8.1

To steal money or things that you were trusted with and use them yourself illegally

is specific to stealing from workplace funds or cash registers
to rake off
vsto hand in the till
  • NSFW
1 9.1

Take money secretly from payments, often in an illegal way

refers to stealing employer funds or cash rather than taking transaction cuts
to line one's pocket(s)
vsto hand in the till
  • Informal
8.1

To get money in a dishonest way by using your job or power

is about direct theft from employer funds rather than broad profiteering

Antonyms

return
231 1.0

An act of giving something back to its owner

Surface Forms

hand in the till infinitive
handed in the till past
handed in the till past participle
handing in the till present participle
hands in the till third person singular

Morphology

hand + in + the + till

The word 'till' clearly signals a cash drawer and 'hand in' signals an action involving the till, so learners will infer a money-related workplace context. However, because 'hand' normally implies giving/placing rather than taking, the specific sense 'to steal from the till' is not derivable from the parts alone, making the expression only partially predictable.

Etymology

Hand in the till comes from a clear image of someone putting their hand into a shop's till, the cash drawer, to take money. That's why it now means 'to steal money from where you work'.