[f. SPENDING vbl. sb. 7.] Money used or available for spending; a sum allowed for this purpose; pocket-money.
1598. R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Heavtontim., I. ii. 204. Allowing them little spending mony.
1600. Dymmok, Ireland (1843), 8. Soren is a kinde of allowance over and above the bonaght, which the Galloglass exact vpon the pore people, by waye of spendinge monye.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. i. (1658), 5. From whom Receiv’d you spending money?
1707. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. III. lvi. (1710), 654. The Allowance of 1s. 6d. per Week for Spending-Money.
a. 1732. T. Boston, Crook in Lot (1805), 153. The servant at the term gets his fee in a round sum, while the young heir gets but a few pence for spending-money.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 102. The slaves have a good many ways of obtaining ‘spending money.’
1890. Spectator, 5 July, 7/1. Each missionary is therefore mulcted on the average to the extent of £60 a year, a direct reduction … in his total spending-money of nearly one-fourth.
