Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to cross someone's palm with gold

to cross someone's palm with gold

9.7
To pay someone for a service, especially to have them tell your future
  • idiom
  • UK
translation icon : pagar a alguien
  • Before she read my tarot cards, the mysterious woman asked me to cross her palm with gold.

Examples

  • If you want to learn your fate, you must cross my palm with gold first, the fortune-teller said.

  • Will you cross my palm with gold before the reading?

  • They would only reveal the secret after I crossed their palm with gold.

  • Many people cross their palms with gold for luck.

  • To get an accurate reading, you must cross her palm with gold before she starts.

  • The psychic told me to cross his palm with gold to gain insights into my future.

  • After paying the fee, I crossed her palm with gold, eager for answers about my love life.

Synonyms

to cross one's palm with silver
vsto cross someone's palm with gold
  • Archaic
9.3

To give someone money to get a favor, often as a bribe

is paid specifically for supernatural or fortune telling services not to buy favors

Surface Forms

cross someone's palm with gold infinitive
crossed someone's palm with gold past
crossed someone's palm with gold past participle
crossing someone's palm with gold present participle
crosses someone's palm with gold third person singular

Morphology

cross + someone's + palm + with + gold

The literal components ('palm' + 'with gold') clearly evoke putting valuable metal into someone's hand, so a learner could infer it involves giving money. However, the phrasing is idiomatic and somewhat archaic (the verb 'cross' in this sense is unusual) and the precise cultural sense of paying specifically for a fortune-telling or supernatural service is not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

The phrase cross someone's palm with gold comes from a simple image: a person puts a gold coin into the fortune-teller's open palm or slides the coin across the hand as a kind of cross. That's why the phrase now means 'to pay someone for a service', especially a reading.