conscience money


noun
  1. money paid, often anonymously, to relieve one's conscience, as for an obligation previously evaded or a wrong done.

Origin of conscience money

1
First recorded in 1840–50

Words Nearby conscience money

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use conscience money in a sentence

  • To a certain extent this was what we should now call "conscience money."

    The Story of Florence | Edmund G. Gardner
  • There the agents of railroad companies distributed conscience money in the form of loans which were never to be paid back.

  • Or perhaps she subsequently sent conscience money to the Red Cross anonymously.

    More Tish | Mary Roberts Rinehart
  • I only ordered the oysters and coffee; all the rest is conscience money—or sentiment—from the landlord.

    A Modern Instance | William Dean Howells
  • There are over two hundred thousand dollars in securities and they have evidently been left there by somebody as conscience-money.

    The Crevice | William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

British Dictionary definitions for conscience money

conscience money

noun
  1. money paid voluntarily to compensate for dishonesty, esp money paid voluntarily for taxes formerly evaded

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012