rivets

rivets

obsolete slang Money, especially copper coins. Hey, buddy, can you spare a few rivets?
See also: rivet
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

rivets

(ˈrɪvəts)
n. dollars; money. (From copper rivets.) You got enough rivets on you for a snack?
See also: rivet
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • pillow-biter
  • on one's
  • on someone's
  • a few ticks
  • (Have you) been OK?
  • rivet the eyes on
  • ACAB
  • out of one's
  • (I've) got to go
  • rump-ranger
References in classic literature
"I slapped him on the back and shouted 'We shall have rivets!' He scrambled to his feet exclaiming 'No!
Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, a visitation.
"I had given up worrying myself about the rivets. One's capacity for that kind of folly is more limited than you would suppose.
Heart of Darkness
The blow produced a metallic sound; and, incredible though it may be, it seemed, I might say, as if it was made of riveted plates.
20000 Leagues Under The Sea
`Oh!' said he, `I do think I can fasten the rivet; I like a job of this kind excessively.'Which you know shewed him to be so very.
`I can fasten the rivet. I like a job of that sort excessively.' I never shall forget his manner.
Emma
The flanks of the dark, moving mass, were advanced in such a manner as to make a concave line of the front, and every fierce eye, that was glaring from the shaggy wilderness of hair in which the entire heads of the males were enveloped, was riveted with mad anxiety on the thicket.
Equally unable to fly or to advance, he stood riveted to the spot, until the infatuation became so complete, that the worthy naturalist was beginning, by a desperate effort of scientific resolution, even to class the different specimens.
The Prairie
He even suffered their hands to meet, without betraying the least emotion, or varying his riveted attitude of attention.
Last of The Mohicans
The lieutenant explained how to rivet the hoof and went away to his own quarters.
War and Peace
I knew her to a rivet. I had superintended her construction.
I was rubbing one of her hands when she opened her eyes, and I dropped it as though it were a red-hot rivet. Those eyes took me in slowly from head to foot; then they wandered slowly around the horizon marked by the rising and falling gunwales of the lifeboat.
The Land That Time Forgot
said I, again riveted with the insane earnestness of his manner.
Moby Dick I LXVII
My attention was quickly riveted by a large red star close to the distant horizon.
Princess of Mars
About three million rivets were used to hold Titanic together.
Hammer and tongs; Maritime TALES