folding money
1
3.2
- noun
- /ˈfoʊldɪŋ ˈmʌni/
- US
:
billetes
- The street performers relied on tips given in folding money from passersby.
Examples
-
(holding out his folding money)
Fiction book (2001) -
If it was me, they'd be coming out their pockets... with some serious folding money every time they took me around.
-
Anyway, look, folding money.
-
I'd bet folding money that "Rex Conte," the letter writer, is a completely fictitious human.
Blog text (7) -
It might be the folding money she paid them, the folding money that the old-time summer people never used to pay mountain people.
Fiction book (1991) -
It might be the folding money she paid them, the folding money that the old-time summer people never used to pay mountain people.
Fiction book (1991) -
She took out some folding money to pay for her lunch at the café.
-
He always carries a few bills of folding money in his wallet for emergencies.
Synonyms
295
1.5
Money made of paper that people use to pay for things
16
1.6
Money made of printed paper notes that a government uses
3
2.5
Money in printed notes that people use instead of coins
Paper money issued by a country's central bank used to buy things
A piece of paper used as money and issued by a central bank
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'paper currency' is directly derivable from combining 'folding' (able to be folded) with 'money' — i.e. money that can be folded, contrastive with coins. This simple modifier+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows transparent composition, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will readily infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Folding money comes from the simple picture of folding paper money, bills you fold and keep in a wallet. Because these are not coins, the phrase came to mean 'paper money'.