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purse

noun
/pɜːs/UK/pɜɹs/US/pɝs/US

Etymology

From Middle English purs, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”). Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”). Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).

  1. derived from βύρσα — “hide, wine-skin”
  2. derived from bursa — “leather bag”
  3. inherited from *pusô✻ — “bag, sack, scrip”
  4. inherited from *pusō✻
  5. inherited from purs — “purse”
  6. inherited from purs

Definitions

  1. A small bag for carrying money.

    • And then muſt many a man occupie as farre as his purſe would reache, and ſtretche out his legges accordynge to the length of his couerlet.

  2. A handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)

    • Master leathercrafter does handcrafted wallets, belts, purses, handbags etc., supporting self and helpers. Good enough to carve fantst art and portraits into leather.

  3. A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.

    • It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were scheduled to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A specific sum of money in certain countries

      A specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.

    2. To press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.

      • When you're feeling in the dumps Don't be silly chumps Just purse your lips and whistle – that's the thing.

    3. To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles

      To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.

      • […] thou […] didst contract and purse thy brow together, / As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain / Some horrible conceit: […]

    4. To put into a purse.

      • And I will go and purse the ducats straight,

    5. To steal purses

      To steal purses; to rob.

      • Why I'll purse; if that raise me not, I'll bet at bowling alleys, or man whores: I would fain live by others.

    6. A surname from Middle English.

The neighborhood

Derived

beggar's purse, belt purse, change purse, coin purse, common purse, cut one's cloth to suit one's purse, cut-purse, cutpurse, devil's purse, dispurse, empty as a pauper's purse, finger purse, gaming purse, hold the purse strings, jail purse, king's purse, lighten someone's purse, long purse, loosen the purse strings, make a silk purse of a sow's ear, you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear, manpurse, man purse, mermaid's purse, murse, pickpurse, pick-purse, power of the purse, prison purse, Privy Purse, public purse, purse-bearer, purse crab, purseful, purseless, purselike, pursemaker, pursemaking, purse net, purse-pride · +16 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for purse. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA