conscience money
money paid, often anonymously, to relieve one's conscience, as for an obligation previously evaded or a wrong done.
Origin of conscience money
1Words 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. GardnerThere the agents of railroad companies distributed conscience money in the form of loans which were never to be paid back.
Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama | Walter L. FlemingOr perhaps she subsequently sent conscience money to the Red Cross anonymously.
More Tish | Mary Roberts RinehartI only ordered the oysters and coffee; all the rest is conscience money—or sentiment—from the landlord.
A Modern Instance | William Dean HowellsThere 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
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
Browse