cross someone's palm
cross someone's palm verb: to pay for goods or a service.
Verb
cross someone's palm (third-person singular simple present crosses someone's palm, present participle crossing someone's palm, simple past and past participle crossed someone's palm)
- To pay for goods or a service.
- For all who cross his palm with silver he condescends to lift the drapery that hides the reclining figure, and the larger the coin the longer the look.1910 October 12, “Pay to See Barney Statue: Hindu Butler Reaping a Harvest from Washington's Curious Folk”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 Apr 2009, page 1
- "I'd go into a trance and see if I could locate my chum." "You don't have to do that," declared Arnold. "Just cross my palm with a piece of silver and I'll locate him for you."1915, G. Harvey Ralphson, chapter 28, in Boy Scouts in Southern Waters
Forms of cross someone's palm
| third-person singular present | crosses someone's palm |
|---|---|
| present participle | crossing someone's palm |
| past participle | crossed someone's palm |
| past | crossed someone's palm |
| alternative form | cross someone's palm with silver |
Questions about cross someone's palm
- What does cross someone's palm mean?
- Cross someone's palm means to pay for goods or a service.
- What part of speech is cross someone's palm?
- Cross someone's palm is a verb.
- What is the past tense of cross someone's palm?
- The past tense of cross someone's palm is crossed someone's palm.
Words near cross someone's palm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cross someone's palm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cross someone's palm.ogg.
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