/fə ˈpiːnʌts/
English idiom, informal. For a very small amount of money.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use For peanuts
?
Informal, and most often about pay: “work for peanuts”, “they pay peanuts”. It also works for bargains (“I got it for peanuts”), with “buy” or “get”. “Peanuts” can stand alone as a noun too, as in “the salary is peanuts”.
For peanuts
in real sentences
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I got this for peanuts.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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We’re working for peanuts.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does For peanuts
come from?
English Wiktionary lists “a very small amount, especially of a salary” as an informal, figurative sense of “peanuts” but gives no date or story for it. The image fits a snack sold by the handful for loose change, though None of the usual sources says how the sense started. It also shows up in the saying “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.
Mistakes learners make with For peanuts
Using the singular. “I bought it for a peanut” or “he earns peanut” sounds wrong; the idiom only works as “peanuts”.
Other English idioms like For peanuts
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?
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