Meanings
- pluralplural onlyMoney or other property acquired dishonestly.
The exclusion from his clubs would mean ruin to Moran, who lived by his ill-gotten card gains.
1903 September 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC4 more examples
Was it her fault if she did not possess those sycophantic arts which her hypocritical nephew, Pitt Crawley, practised? She wished him all the happiness which he merited out of his ill-gotten gains.
1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXXIX, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLCSecondly, the highly reprehensible course pursued by the Free Church of Scotland, in soliciting, receiving, and retaining money in its sustentation fund for supporting the gospel in Scotland, which was evidently the ill-gotten gain of slaveholders and slave-traders.
1855, Frederick Douglass, “Life as a Freeman”, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC, part II (Life as a Freeman), page 380By the bright bow of Heaven, I will have their ill-gotten gains from them, even though I hang for it as high as e'er a forest tree in Sherwood!
1883, Howard Pyle, “Robin Hood and Will Scarlet”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLCHow, exactly, does a lawyer come to legally give away ill-gotten gains on behalf of an international company that does not want to be named and surely does not want to face prosecution for what one division did?
2015 February 6, Paul Sullivan, “Finding the ‘Right’ Way to Dispose of Ill-Gotten Gains”, in The New York Times, →ISSNSynonyms: dirty money
Synonyms & antonyms
nounMoney or other property acquired dishonestly.
Origin
Perhaps extracted from ill-gotten gains never prosper.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French argent sale
- argent salemoney acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Greek ανεμομαζώματα
- ανεμομαζώματα (anemomazómata)money acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Italian guadagni disonesti
- guadagni disonestimoney acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Japanese 悪銭
- 悪銭 (akusen)money acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Polish brudne pieniądze
- brudne pieniądzemoney acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Spanish dinero sucio
- dinero suciomoney acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Turkish kara para
- kara paramoney acquired dishonestly — see also dirty money
Cite this entry
ill-gotten gains. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ill-gotten%20gains
“ill-gotten gains.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ill-gotten%20gains. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ill-gotten gains,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ill-gotten%20gains.
Source: ill-gotten gains on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.