pretty penny | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic,informal)Chiefly preceded bya: aconsiderableamountofmoney; ahighincomeorprice.Synonyms:an arm and a leg,(dated)fair penny,(dated)fine penny,fortuneThey could charge apretty pennyas they had a captive audience.1709(date written),Susanna Cent-livre,The Man’s Bewitch’d; or, The Devil to Do about Her. A Comedy,[…], Dublin:[…]J. Jones, for George Ewing,[…], published1737,→OCLC, Act I,page12:VVhy here may be apretty Pennytovvards, if the Devil don't croſs it.1848November –1850December,William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Chapter of Match-making”, inThe History of Pendennis.[…], volume II, London:Bradbury and Evans,[…], published1850,→OCLC,page350:We shall have our branch line—our shares are up, sir—and we buy your three fields along the Brawl, and put apretty pennyintoyourpocket, Mr. Pendennis.1860,George Eliot[pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Tom’s ‘First Half’”, inThe Mill on the Floss[…], volume I, Edinburgh; London:William Blackwood and Sons,→OCLC, book II (School-time),page256:[E]verything's as nice as can be all over the house, and that watered-silk she had on cost apretty penny.1885,Bret Harte, chapter I, inMaruja, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.:Houghton, Mifflin and Company[…],→OCLC,page16:"Then the Captain might still make apretty pennyon Amita," said the Scotchman.1906,John Galsworthy, “James at Large”, inThe Man of Property, London:William Heinemann,→OCLC, part I,page87:He didn't know—he expected she was spending apretty pennyon dress.1915,W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXIII, inOf Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.:George H[enry] Doran Company,→OCLC,page377:"It must have cost you apretty penny. It's lucky you can afford it." / "I can't," said Philip. "But what do I care!"1991,Robert Wyatt,Alfreda Benge, “Shrinkrap”, inDondestan:It costs apretty penny/ Just to stay afloat / It takes a lot of lolly / Trying to be jolly2007April 30, Barbara Kiviat, “Stephen Schwarzman”, inTime‎[1], New York, N.Y.:Time Warner Publishing,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon9 December 2008:[Stephen Allen] Schwarzman's firm makes apretty pennyin a number of finance fields, including real estate and hedge funds, yet carries the most heft for its work in private equity—a force that is remaking corporate America and spreading its influence overseas.

Examples:

EN: You cost me a pretty penny already.
ES: Ya me has costado mucho.
EN: This cost a pretty penny.
ES: ¿Y no me lo merezco?
EN: - I'll bet that costs a pretty penny.
ES: Cuesta mucho dinero tomar a una cortesana.
EN: The family home is worth a pretty penny too.
ES: La casa familiar también vale una pasta.
EN: -I'd pay out a pretty penny.
ES: - Le soltaré una buena pasta.
EN: Ooh, they got a pretty penny!
ES: Ooh, ¡un buen botín!
EN: I'll bet I can make a pretty penny.
ES: Podría hacer un buen negocio.
EN: I'll tell you on the way, Mr., but since it's getting late, and the gypsy show that you ordered for your English friends must be starting, and that has cost you a pretty penny.
ES: De punta a rabo. Se la contaré a usted por el camino, míster, que se hace tarde, y ya debe estar la zambra que ha encargado usted
EN: $7,500 is a pretty penny, but my client needs $10,000... for reasons that should be pretty obvious by now.
ES: 7.500 dólares hacen una bonita suma, pero mi cliente necesita 10.000... por razones que ya deberían ser bastante obvias.
EN: - It must have cost a pretty penny.
ES: - Eso ha debido costarle.
EN: If you'd got yourself bumped off, your missus might've collected a pretty penny.
ES: Al estar en esa caída podrías recibir mucho dinero.
EN: Hey, we can make a pretty penny besides too, you know.
ES: Y encima, podremos ganar mucho dinero.
EN: That must have cost the Johnstones a pretty penny
ES: Eso debe haber costado a los Johnstone mucho dinero.
EN: Hey, that will cost you a pretty penny, Master Branwell.
ES: Esto le costará una buena cantidad, Maese Branwell.
EN: A pretty penny can be had...
ES: Algún dinero podría salvarse.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).