out of one's own pocket
11
4.1
- idiom
:
de su propio bolsillo
- I spent thousands of dollars out of my own pocket to buy materials my school could no longer afford to buy.
- pay out of one's own pocket
- money out of one's own pocket
- dollars out of one's own pocket
Examples
-
Most foster parents pay out of their own pockets.
Academic text (2008) -
I paid for them out of my own pocket.
Blog text (29) -
I... I paid for those right out of my own pocket.
-
I already had to spend $50 out of my own pocket last week.
-
I paid a man out of my own pocket to fix it.
-
I'll pay out of my own pocket if I have to.
-
Look, I'm not doing what I do because I get paid; it's all out of my own pocket.
Blog text (12) -
I'm paying $900 a month out of my own pocket for health insurance because I'm self-employed.
Blog text (34) -
I have purchased RS Logix out of my own pocket (no company reimbursement) and don't regret it for a second.
Blog text (25) -
I have to pay for my medical bills out of my own pocket.
Synonyms
30
7.1
Pay a large amount of money even when you do not want to
18
6.4
You pay for something with your own money and are not paid back
Cover your own costs without help
To give money willingly, often when it is not needed
Antonyms
How Funded
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'out of' = from, 'one's own' = personal, and 'pocket' = personal funds or literal pocket, so together they describe paying from one's personal money. This concrete, imageable metaphor (taking money out of your pocket) is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will almost certainly infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
The phrase out of one's own pocket comes from the simple image of taking money from your own pocket to pay for something when no one else will. That's why it means 'using your own money'.