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revolving fund

revolving fund

1 5.2
Money set aside for certain needs that people regularly refill
  • noun
  • /rɪˈvɑlvɪŋ fʌnd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : fondo rotatorio
  • Under the present system, state revolving funds cannot distribute bond proceeds rapidly enough to qualify for the federal tax law's arbitrage rebate relief provision.

Examples

  • One wonders what happened to the idea that the IMF was a revolving fund of relatively small short-term loans that countries repaid so others could borrow?

    Academic text (1999)
  • The city established a revolving fund to support community development projects, allowing it to reinvest profits into new initiatives.

  • Potential problems with the revolving fund program also exist on the state side of the equation.

    Academic text (1992)
  • As of May 31, 1990, only ten states had implemented revolving fund programs.

    Academic text (1992)
  • German aid included a grant to finance design and construction and establish a revolving fund to finance similar minihydro projects.

    Academic text (1995)
  • GEF is considering a grant to establish a revolving fund for continued market expansion that would mitigate the first of these factors.

    Academic text (1995)
  • These states sometimes choose to employ escalating-payment plans to postpone their debt charges on state bonds issued under a revolving fund until future years.

    Academic text (1992)
  • This outbreak immediately prompted proposed legislation to establish a multi-billion dollar revolving fund that would allow states to issue loans for constructing or improving water treatment plants (12).

    Academic text (1994)
  • The DoD, and particularly the Navy, had operated many of its industrial and supply activities on a revolving fund basis since 1951, but these funds were decentralized and accounted for separately under the military departments and agencies until the DBOF was created.

    Academic text (1993)
  • The $70 billion DBOF revolving fund was consolidated under the DoD Comptroller and directed by Principal Deputy Comptroller Donald Shycoff.

    Academic text (1993)

How Sustainable

endowment
  • Formal
67 6.5
revolving fund
  • Specialized
1 5.2
grant
324 3.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

revolve + fund

The sense of 'revolving' as cyclical or repeatedly circulating has a clear link to 'revolve' (to turn in a circle), so a learner could guess the fund involves money that is used and then replenished. However, the specific financial mechanism — regular replenishment and designated reuse — is a metaphorical/technical extension that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure. Because the meaning is partially inferable but relies on domain knowledge and metaphorical transfer, it is best classified as semi-transparent.

Etymology

The noun revolving fund comes from the image of money turning like a wheel: the word revolving shows that cash moves out and then back into the fund, so it can be 'used again'. That's why a revolving fund means a pool of money that is regularly refilled and used over and over.