subsistence money
1. Money paid in advance to soldiers, workmen, etc. to supply their needs until the regular pay-day. (Cf. subsist n., sub n. 7.)
| 1687 Royal Order 27 Nov. in Lond. Gaz. No. 2299/1 We do hereby..Require every..Officer..to pay..unto each Private Soldier..Three Shillings per Week,..as Subsistence-Money. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 192 We should have a convenient House, with Firing, and eight Vintens a Man per Day Subsistence-Money. 1798 Hutton Course Math. I. 33 note, Subsistence Money, is the money paid to the soldiers weekly... It is likewise the money advanced to officers till their accounts are made up. 1892 Labour Comm. Gloss. No. 9 s.v. Money, Subsistence money, a certain proportion of wages, equal to what one day's wages would be under the ordinary rate, i.e., 6d. per hour, paid every day under the plus system. |
2. An allowance for maintenance granted under special circumstances (see quots.).
| 1720 Overseers' Acc. Holy Cross, Canterbury (MS.), Paid Mrs. Yeats A Quarters subsistance Mony. 1847 C. G. Addison Law of Contracts i. i. (1883) 10 A parent..cannot be made liable,..unless..the child has become chargeable upon the parish, and the parish authorities sue for subsistence money in the mode provided by the poor laws. 1861 Geikie Forbes xiv. 518 The Professors..had to take their students to the country, live in expensive hotels, and received no subsistence money to defray their additional expenditure. 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict., Subsistence Money, an allowance granted for the subsistence of soldiers who, whilst in imprisonment in cells, or confinement in the guard-room, forfeit their daily pay. |