cut off with(out) a shilling/cent
cut off with a cent
dated cliché Intentionally excluded or disinherited from someone's will or the fortune of one's family. Primarily heard in US. The young entrepreneur, cut off with a cent, sailed to Europe to seek a new life without the aid or influence of his family. My father never liked that I gave up medicine to become a writer, and so I was cut off with a cent when he died.
See also: cent, cut, off
cut off with a shilling
dated cliché Intentionally excluded or disinherited from someone's will or the fortune of one's family. Primarily heard in UK. The young duke, cut off with a shilling, sailed to America to seek a new life without the aid or influence of his family. My father never liked that I gave up medicine to become a writer, and so I was cut off with a shilling when he died.
See also: cut, off, shilling
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
cut off with(out) a shilling/cent
Disinherited. To write a will leaving someone just one shilling is equivalent to being left nothing; without a shilling, of course, explicitly means left nothing. The former is not just an insult. English law at one time required that some bequest be made so as to show that the disinheritance was intentional, and not an oversight. In America, “cent” was sometimes substituted for “shilling.” A cliché since about 1800, the term is now dying out.
See also: cent, cut, off, shilling
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- be careful what you wish for(, it might (just) come true)
- do not try this at home
- a sight to behold
- be all Greek to someone
- (it's) (all) Greek to me
- Greek to me
- Greek to me, it's
- it's all Greek to me
- plot thickens
- plot thickens, the