high finance
3
6.2
- noun
:
alta finanza
- She specialized in high finance, advising multinational corporations on complex mergers and acquisitions.
- world of high finance
- international high finance
Examples
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All of this high finance has turned out to be just destructive, and that's partly a matter of regulation.
Blog text (8) -
As old as Wall Street itself, Harry's is the watering hole of choice after a hard day's work in the world of high finance.
Fiction book (2000) -
I mean, what do you know about high finance?
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How about the world of high finance?
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I know this high finance thing may look good to you now... but I know how these guys operate.
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I'm not up to date on matters of high finance.
Fiction book (1990) -
High finance in America was born at that time.
Academic text (1993) -
It's a trick or fraud of high finance and monopoly capitalism.
Blog text (13) -
These borrowers usually take on large loan amounts with corresponding small down payments and high finance charges.
Academic text (2016) -
Regarding the economy, McGovern confessed "my ignorance on high finance" but praised Obama's stimulus program and said he believed the economy would turn around "in the next two or three years."
Blog text (1)
Synonyms
244
3.6
The study of how people and businesses manage money and investments
How Large
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'high' (above normal/large) modifies 'finance' (financial activity), yielding the sense of large-scale or elite financial dealings. This adjective+noun pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English composition, so a B1 learner who knows both words can reasonably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
High finance comes from the image of money and decisions happening in the high rooms or top floors of big banks and governments, where people handle finance on a large scale. So, high finance now means 'financial dealings with very large sums and important organizations'.