pelf
/pɛlf/
pelf noun: money, riches; gain, especially when dishonestly acquired; lucre, mammon.
Noun
pelf (countable and uncountable, plural pelfs)
- Money, riches; gain, especially when dishonestly acquired; lucre, mammon.
- Raph. Sirra Hammon Hammon, dost thou thinke a shooe-maker is so base, to be a bawd to his own wife for cõmodity! take thy gold, choake with it: were I not lame, I would make thee eate thy words.
Firke. A shoomaker sell his flesh and blood, oh indignitie!
Hodg. Sirra, take up your pelfe, and be...1599 (first performance; published 1600), Thomas Dekker, “The Shomakers Holiday. Or The Gentle Craft. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker […], volume I, London: John Pearson […], published... - For what greater folly can there be, or madneſſe, then to […] keepe backe from his wife and children, neither letting them, nor other friends uſe or enjoy that which is theirs by right, and which they much need perhaps; like a hog, or dog in the manger, he doth onely keep it, becauſe it ſhall doe...1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Φιλαργυρία [Philarguría] Covetousnesse a Cause”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles...
- Synonyms:
- accession, acquirement, acquisition, acquist, attainment, gain, gaining, increase, obtainment, boodle
- Raph. Sirra Hammon Hammon, dost thou thinke a shooe-maker is so base, to be a bawd to his own wife for cõmodity! take thy gold, choake with it: were I not lame, I would make thee eate thy words.
- Rubbish, trash; specifically (UK, dialectal) refuse from plants.
- Now for women, in ſtead of laborious ſtudies, they have curious, needleworkes, Cut-workes, ſpinning, bone-lace, and many prettie deviſes of their owne making, to adorne their houſes, […] Which to her gueſts ſhe ſhews, with all her pelfe, / Thus far my maides, but this I did my ſelf.1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Exercise Rectified of Body and Minde”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and...
- Dust; fluff.
- A contemptible or useless person.
- Synonyms:
- absolute zero, assbucket, asswipe, badling, blatherskite, bugger, carrion, cipher, cockstain, crumb
- Antonyms:
- baron, big cheese, big enchilada, big gun, big kahuna, big man, big name, big noise, big shot, bigwig
pelf meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada
pelf in Tamil
- பணம், அநியாயமாகச் சேர்த்த செல்வம்
pelf in Urdu
- دولت, دھن, کوڑی, پیسہ, زر
pelf in Kannada
- ಇಳಿಕೆಯ ಸೊಮ್ಮು, ಅಳಿಸೊಮ್ಮು
Examples of pelf in a sentence
- During his Office, Treaſon vvas no Crime. / The Sons of Belial had a Glorious Time: / For Shimei, though not prodigal of pelf, / Yet lov'd his vvicked Neighbour as himſelf.1681, [John Dryden], Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] J[acob] T[onson] and are to be sold by W. Davis […], →OCLC, page 19:
- The inlaid characters in diamond, and other precious stones, have been all abstracted away by the pelf-loving Jaut and Mahratta—leaving the walls defaced with the hollow marks of the chisel.1869, Bholanauth Chunder, chapter VIII, in The Travels of a Hindoo to Various Parts of Bengal and Upper India. […], volume I, London...
- When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf, and the world makes you King for a day, / Then go to the mirror and look at yourself, and see what that guy has to say.1934, Dale Wimbrow, The Guy in the Glass:
- Some of the rich classmates were keeping their pelf to themselves.1968 October, Nicholas von Hoffman, “The Class of ’43 is Puzzled”, in Robert Manning, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic...
Synonyms of pelf
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of pelf
| plural | pelfs |
|---|
Origin of pelf
From Late Middle English pelf, pelfe (“stolen goods, booty, spoil; forfeited property; money, riches; property; valuable object”), possibly from Anglo-Norman pelf (a variant of pelfre (“booty, loot”)) and Old French peufre (“frippery; rubbish”); further etymology uncertain, possibly a metathesis of Old French felpe, ferpe, frepe (“a rag”). The English word is perhaps related to Late Latin pelfa, pelfra, pelfrum (“forfeited or stolen goods”), Middle French peuffe and French peufe, peuffe (“old clothes; rubbish”) (Normandy), and pilfer.
Words formed from pelf
Words that rhyme with pelf
38 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- atself
- Godself
- Guelph
- hirself
- it self
- m'self
- themself
- xyrself
- zirself
- -self
- Belf
- Chelf
- coself
- eirself
- emself
- Guelf
- Helf
- hisself
- hitself
- ittself
- know thyself
- meself
- off-the-shelf
- one's self
- oneself
- perself
- Relph
- theeself
- theirself
- theyself
- thonself
- thyself
- xemself
- y'allself
- yerself
- yo'self
- yoself
- youself
Questions about pelf
- What does pelf mean?
- Pelf means money, riches; gain, especially when dishonestly acquired; lucre, mammon.
- What is pelf in Tamil?
- Pelf in Tamil is பணம், அநியாயமாகச் சேர்த்த செல்வம். See Pelf meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use pelf in a sentence?
- During his Office, Treaſon vvas no Crime. / The Sons of Belial had a Glorious Time: / For Shimei, though not prodigal of pelf, / Yet lov'd his vvicked Neighbour as himſelf.
- What part of speech is pelf?
- Pelf is a noun.
- How do you pronounce pelf?
- Pelf is pronounced /pɛlf/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pelf?
- The plural of pelf is pelfs.
Words near pelf in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pelf (page history and authors); pelf (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pelf (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pelf (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-pelf.wav.
Cite this entry: “pelf.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pelf. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.