Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small piece of metal, usually flat and circular, authorized by a government for use as money.
  • noun Metal money considered as a whole.
  • noun A flat circular piece or object felt to resemble metal money.
  • noun A mode of expression considered standard.
  • transitive verb To make (pieces of money) from metal; mint or strike.
  • transitive verb To make pieces of money from (metal).
  • transitive verb To devise (a new word or phrase).
  • adjective Requiring one or more pieces of metal money for operation.
  • idiom (the other side of the coin) One of two differing or opposing views or sides.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In architecture, a corner or an angle. See quoin.
  • noun The specific name given to various wedge-shaped pieces used for different purposes, as—
  • noun for raising or lowering a piece of ordnance;
  • noun for locking a printers' form;
  • noun for fixing casks in their places, as on board a ship. See quoin.
  • noun A die employed for stamping money.
  • noun Hence A piece of metal, as gold, silver, copper, or some alloy, converted into money by impressing on it officially authorized marks, figures, or characters: as, gold coins; a copper coin; counterfeit coins.
  • noun Collectively, coined money; coinage; a particular quantity or the general supply of metallic money: as, a large stock of coin; the current coin of the realm.
  • noun Figuratively, anything that serves for payment, requital, or recompense.
  • noun [F.] The clock of a stocking.
  • To stamp and convert into money; mint: as, to coin gold.
  • To make by coining metals: said of money.
  • To represent on a coin.
  • To make; fabricate; invent: as, to coin words.
  • In tin-works, to weigh and stamp (tin blocks).
  • To yield to the process of minting; be suitable for conversion into metallic money; be coinable.
  • noun A quince.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To manufacture counterfeit money.
  • noun A quoin; a corner or external angle; a wedge. See coigne, and quoin.
  • noun A piece of metal on which certain characters are stamped by government authority, making it legally current as money; -- much used in a collective sense.
  • noun That which serves for payment or recompense.
  • noun See Illust. of Balance.
  • noun [Colloq.] to return to one the same kind of injury or ill treatment as has been received from him.
  • transitive verb To make of a definite fineness, and convert into coins, as a mass of metal; to mint; to manufacture.
  • transitive verb To make or fabricate; to invent; to originate.
  • transitive verb To acquire rapidly, as money; to make.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun money A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle.
  • noun A token used in a special establishment like a casino (also called a chip).
  • noun One of the suits of minor arcana in tarot, or a card of that suit.
  • verb to create coins.
  • verb to make up or invent, and establish

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make up
  • noun a flat metal piece (usually a disc) used as money
  • verb form by stamping, punching, or printing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, die for stamping coins, wedge, from Latin cuneus, wedge.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Attend, ye skilled to coin the precious tale,

    Creating proof, where innuendos fail!"

    Sheridan, School for Scandal

    January 2, 2008

  • French corner.

    January 9, 2008

  • In Italy, the name of a department store, pronounced Co-In.

    November 12, 2008

  • Means "dogs" in Scottish.

    July 13, 2009

  • to coin something = to make it up

    April 30, 2010