cold cash

cold cash (uncountable)

1. Money, especially in the form of paper currency or coins, which is in hand or readily available for use.
   • 1904, David Graham Phillips, chapter 19, in The Cost:

     "Promises, especially from Joe Larkin, will go a long way, though they don't rouse the white hot enthusiasm that cold cash in the pocket does."

   • 1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 5, in The Yukon Trail:

     "I wouldn't cross that rock wall for a hundred thousand dollars in cold cash."

   • 2000 October 15, Matthew Miller, “The Big Federal Freeze”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 July 2013:

     [H]ighways, dams and research laboratories have lost their primacy; cold cash—for pensions, doctors and hospitals—has taken over.

   • 2005 December 12, Jyoti Thottham, “War on the Water Front”, in Time:

     Maine has only 1.3 million people but at least 25 trillion gallons of drinkable water in its lakes and aquifers. Wilfong, a former state legislator, wants to turn that resource into cold cash.

• Often used with the connotation that, at least in the current situation, money in this form is preferable to other kinds of wealth.

• cash on the barrelhead

• “cold cash”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.