get-penny

plural get-pennies · alternative getpenny

1. colloquialdatedSomething that makes money; a financially successful affair.

   if a pack of hackney scribblers shall attack me only by way of a get-penny, I shall not be provoked to answer them

   1728, Daniel Defoe, Augusta Triumphans

   1 more example

   thou and thy acts become the posies for hospitals; when thy name shall be written upon conduits, and thy deeds played i' thy lifetime by the best companies of actors, and be called their get-penny.

   1605 August (first performance), Geo[rge] Chapman, Ben Ionson, Ioh[n] Marston, Eastward Hoe. […], London: […] [George Eld] for William Aspley, published September 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   Synonyms: money-spinner, moneymaker