pelfe

Noun

pelf (countable and uncountable, plural pelfs)

1. (dated, derogatory, uncountable) 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...

   Synonyms:

   accession, acquirement, acquisition, acquist, attainment, gain, gaining, increase, obtainment, boodle

2. (dated, uncountable) 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...

   Synonyms:

   cultch, crap, debris, dreck, drek, garbage, gash, junk, litter, piece of crap

3. (uncountable, Southwest England) Dust; fluff.
4. (Yorkshire, countable, derogatory) 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