king's ransom

plural king's ransoms · plural kings' ransoms

1. idiomaticA very large sum of money.

   Except that Clarissa Astley would not have been decked out in a king's ransom of diamonds.

   2010, Jane Feather, Rushed to the Altar, Pocket Books, published 2010, →ISBN, page 386

   4 more examples

   "But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom."

   1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 12, in The Talisman

   These gold, silver and pewter pieces are part of a king’s ransom of Spanish treasure salvaged from the sea off Florida where they had lain for 250 years.

   1967 March 10, Archeology: An Ill-Starred Treasure Comes into Its Own (pictorial), LIFE, page 101

   “[…]This commercial message is sponsored by Lebenthal in the heartfelt belief that we’re not the only ones who are going to miss the bonds when they’re gone and it costs a king’s ransom to turn on the lights, boil water, or haul the garbage.”

   1986 March 24, Bernice Kanner, “The Real James Bond: Jim Lebenthal’s Tax-Bill Crusade”, in New York, page 46

   Solving longitude was one of the major preoccupations of European nations from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. King’s ransoms were offered for its solution.

   2005, Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, “The Pendulum: Its Place in Science, Culture and Pedagogy”, in Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, editors, The Pendulum: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Educational Perspectives, page 7

   Synonyms: an arm and a leg, fortune, pretty penny