PURSE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Purse

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/pərs/ Listen

noun

Purse n.

1.

A small bag or pouch, the opening of which is made to draw together closely, used to carry money in; by extension, any receptacle for money carried on the person; a wallet; a pocketbook; a portemonnaie. " Who steals my purse steals trash."

2.

Hence, a treasury; finances; as, the public purse.

3.

A sum of money offered as a prize, or collected as a present; as, to win the purse; to make up a purse.

4.

A specific sum of money; as:

(a)

In Turkey, the sum of 500 piasters.

(b)

In Persia, the sum of 50 tomans.

Light purse, or Empty purse, poverty or want of resources.

Long purse, or Heavy purse, wealth; riches.

Purse crab (Zool.), any land crab of the genus Birgus, allied to the hermit crabs. They sometimes weigh twenty pounds or more, and are very strong, being able to crack cocoanuts with the large claw. They chiefly inhabit the tropical islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, living in holes and feeding upon fruit. Called also palm crab.

Purse net, a fishing net, the mouth of which may be closed or drawn together like a purse.

Purse pride, pride of money; insolence proceeding from the possession of wealth.

Purse rat. (Zool.) See Pocket gopher, under Pocket.

Sword and purse, the military power and financial resources of a nation.

verb

Purse v. t. (past & past part. pursed; pres. part. pursing)

1.

To put into a purse. "I will go and purse the ducats straight."

2.

To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles, like the mouth of a purse; to pucker; to knit. "Thou... didst contract and purse thy brow."

Purse v. i. To steal purses; to rob. (Obs. & R.) "I'll purse:... I'll bet at bowling alleys."

See images of 'Purse'

Etymology of 'Purse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Purse" Quotes from Famous Books

... his shins, and found Dr. Hoyt. The doctor is one of the worst men in the world, and when he saw how the shoes were put on he told the judge that his case was hopeless unless something was done immediately. The judge turned pale, the sweat poured out of him, and taking out his purse he gave the doctor five dollars and asked him what he should do. The doctor felt his pulse, looked at his tongue, listened at his heart, shook his head, and then told the judge that he would be a dead man in less than sixty years if he didn't ...

— Peck's Compendium of Fun • George W. Peck

... recourse to the basest treachery. By bribing an old woman in the service of Zinevra, he is conveyed to her sleeping apartment, concealed in a trunk, from which he issues in the dead of the night; he takes note of the furniture of the chamber, makes himself master of her purse, her morning robe, or cymar, and her girdle, and of a certain mark on her person. He repeats these observations for two nights, and, furnished with these evidences of Zinevra's guilt, he returns to Paris, and lays them before the wretched husband. Bernabo rejects every ...

— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... dollars with an apology for the delay and Mr. Excell offered his slender purse, but Mrs. Raimon said: "I'll attend to this matter of expense. Let me do that little for him—please!" And he gave way, ...

— The Eagle's Heart • Hamlin Garland

... praise and glorify those whom, in their secret hearts, are the objects of abhorrence. All this came out gradually before me. Nor did I feel as I ought to have felt in their behalf, until, in my own person and purse, I became the victim of a system of tyranny which cries from earth to heaven for relief. Were I to narrate my own story, it would startle many of the Protestants of Ireland. There are good landlords—never ...

— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack

... popular favour much earlier. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has pointed out that in Philotimus (1583) the men of Gotham are remembered as having "tied their rentes in a purse about an hare's necke, and bade her to carrie it to their landlord," an excellent ...

— The Book of Noodles - Stories Of Simpletons; Or, Fools And Their Follies • W. A. Clouston

Copyright © 2025 e-Free Translation.com