| pin money | |
| —n | |
| 1. | an allowance by a husband to his wife for personal expenditure |
| 2. | money saved or earned to be used for incidental expenses |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
pin money
Small amounts of money for incidental expenses, as in Grandma usually gives the children some pin money whenever she visits. This expression originally signified money given by a husband to his wife for small personal expenditures such as pins, which were very costly items in centuries past. A will recorded at York in 1542 listed a bequest: "I give my said daughter Margarett my lease of the parsonage . . . to buy her pins." [Early 1500s]