in funds

English

WOTD – 7 February 2021

Etymology

From in + funds (“financial resources”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪn ˈfʌndz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪn ˈfʌndz/, [-ˈfəndz]

Adjective

in funds (not comparable)

1. (chiefly British, dated) Having enough money to spend.
   • 1911 October, Edith Wharton, chapter III, in Ethan Frome (The Scribner Library; SL8), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 71:

     [H]e knew from experience the imprudence of letting Zeena think he was in funds on the eve of one of her therapeutic excursions.

Translations

having enough money to spend

• Dutch: in bonis
• Finnish: vauras (fi)
• French: être en fonds (fr)
• Russian: при деньга́х (ru) (pri denʹgáx)

Further reading

• “in funds, phrase” under “fund, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2017.
• “in funds, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “in funds” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “in funds” (US) / “in funds” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.