lighten someone's purse

verb

to take money from someone.

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Meanings

verblighten someone's purse (third-person singular simple present lightens someone's purse, present participle lightening someone's purse, simple past and past participle lightened someone's purse)

present singular third person lightens someone's purse · participle present lightening someone's purse · participle past lightened someone's purse · past lightened someone's purse

  1. idiomaticto take money from someone.

    For when Robin Hood caught a baron or a squire, or a fat abbot or bishop, he brought them to the greenwood tree and feasted them before he lightened their purses.

    1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

lighten someone's purse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lighten%20someone's%20purse

MLA

“lighten someone's purse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lighten%20someone's%20purse. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lighten someone's purse,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lighten%20someone's%20purse.

Source: lighten someone's purse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.