run for one's money

The idiom likely originates with horse racing, where one can get enjoyment "from watching the race even if one does not win much." Its usage was first recorded in 1874.[1]

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a run for one's money

1. (idiomatic) A difficult challenge for the person indicated, especially one involving a competitive situation.
   • 1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC:

     Since the beginning of the world all men have hunted me like a wolf—kings and sages, and poets and lawgivers, all the churches, and all the philosophies. But I have never been caught yet, and the skies will fall in the time I turn to bay. I have given them a good run for their money, and I will now.

   • 1918, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 24, in The Valley of the Giants:

     "If your competitor regards you as a menace to his pocketbook, he can give you a nice little run for your money and delay you indefinitely."

   • 2003 April 3, Mitch Frank, “Why Primaries Matter”, in Time:

     After beating Bush in New Hampshire, McCain gave him a two month run for his money. Bush had to prove he wasn't just a famous name.

   • 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     Zoe followed him out, and saw he was halfway down the street, running so fast he would give the Olympic-gold-winning sprinters a run for their money.

2. (idiomatic, dated) A reasonable opportunity to succeed, perform acceptably, or escape harm, especially in a difficult situation.
   • 1913, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 18, in Letters of Travel:

     He appealed and, by some arrangement or other, got leave to state his case personally to the Court of Revision. Said, I believe, that he did not much trust lawyers, but that if the sahibs would give him a hearing, as man to man, he might have a run for his money.

   • 1917, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 11, in The Sheriff's Son:

     "I say he'll get a run for his money. If there's any killing to be done, it will be in fair fight."

• Usually preceded by the verb to give followed by a noun or pronoun which functions as an indirect object identifying the person(s) receiving the run for their money:

  We gave him a run for his money.

• have one's work cut out for one
• money's worth

• “Run for the money, to have a” in [John Camden Hotten], The Slang Dictionary […], 5th edition, London: Chatto and Windus, 1874, page 274.