line one's pockets, to
line one's pockets
Accept a bribe or other illicit payment, as in The mayor and his cronies found dozens of ways to line their pockets. This expression dates from the mid-1500s, when it was also put as line one's purse.
See also: line, pocket
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
line (one's) pockets
To make a profit, especially by illegitimate means.
See also: line, pocket
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
line one's pockets, to
To accept bribes, or acquire money in some other questionable way. One writer claims that this term originated when a court tailor who wanted the patronage of Beau Brummel gave him a gift of a coat lined with banknotes. However, the term to line one’s purse, meaning to cram it full of gold or money, predates the eighteenth-century dandy by some two hundred years; Shakespeare used it in Othello (1.1), where Iago speaks of dishonest servants who “have lin’d their coats.”
See also: line
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- drugola
- stolen fruit is (the) sweetest
- stolen fruit is sweet
- stolen fruit is sweetest
- stolen pleasures are (the) sweetest
- itchy
- itchy palm
- an itching palm
- an itchy palm
- cross (one's) palm with silver