color of someone's money

English

Alternative forms

• colour of someone's money

Noun

the color of someone's money

1. Someone's ability or willingness to pay; money paid and not merely promised.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 153:

     Marry come up with such gentlemen! though he hath lived here this many years, I don't believe there is arrow a servant in the house ever saw the colour of his money.

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:

     Sometimes the contractor would lot the work out to some sub-contractor, and he, after the men had worked for a month, would run away, and we should never see the colour of his money.

   • 2022, Jeffery Farnol, The Broad Highway:

     "Then supposin' you show me the color o' your money?" he growled, "come, money fust; I aren't takin' no more risks." For answer I laid the coins before him.