Meaning of 当てをつける I found the following sentence in the novel I'm reading **** What does mean here? Does it mean the speaker found a place to spend or make money? seems to have definitions of both and , so I'm pretty confused about what the speaker is trying to say. From context, the speaker seems to be in need of money, but I'm still unsure what is being meant here.

I also asked this question on Lang-8 and these are the (translated and paraphrased) answers I received. here means the second and third definitions here. It is somewhat similar to or . One of the comments specifically wrote the following:

>
> ≒ prospect, likelihood, possibility
> Therefore, the meaning would be "He was possibly able to get the trip cost."

So, it was possible for him to obtain the funds(), but he did not take the chance. Another commenter said the following:

>

is a different word, which means to "insinuate" and has a negative nuance.