Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A note of US currency.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Salmo stomias, the trout of the Arkansas river.
  • noun A legal-tender note of the United States: so called because the back is printed with green ink.
  • noun The garfish, Belone vulgaris.
  • noun The American golden plover or golden-back. Also called greenhead.
  • noun A humming-bird of the genus Panoplites.
  • noun A frog.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of the legal tender notes of the United States; a note of paper currency of the United States; -- first issued in 1862, and having the devices on the back printed with green ink, to prevent alterations and counterfeits.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US Any bill that is legal tender in the US (originally printed with green and black ink) issued by the Federal Reserve.
  • noun The United States dollar.
  • noun A unit of American currency issued during the Civil War by the Treasury Department.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a piece of paper money (especially one issued by a central bank)

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Amid the dollar rout of the 1970s, Treasury Secretary John Connally famously told a group of fretting Europeans that the greenback is our currency, but your problem.

    What Bernanke Didn 2010

  • The primary lifeboat for the greenback is the TINA (there is no alternative) syndrome; historically, there's been no global alternative to the US dollar since around the end of the Second World War.

    dreams of empire die hard 2005

  • Morganson's swimming eyes saw him drawing a greenback from a fat roll, and

    FINIS 2010

  • But against the rest of the region's currencies, the greenback is expected to get a lift this quarter.

    Asia's Currencies to Pull Back, Analysts Say David Roman 2010

  • The greenback, in other words, is not just America's currency.

    Why the Dollar's Reign Is Near an End Barry Eichengreen 2011

  • The fact that the greenback is used to denominate so many commodities and transactions, even ones where no US agent is involved, is of tremendous value and advantage to the US.

    strength in numbers 2005

  • Morganson's swimming eyes saw him drawing a greenback from a fat roll, and Morganson's swimming eyes cleared on the instant.

    Morganson's Finish 1907

  • This balanced by the dropping loonie: a drop in one penny relative to the greenback translates into an annualized additional $210 million in revenues.

    Top Stories - Google News 2008

  • The president authorized issuance of a novel national currency -- the "greenback" -- that had no backing in gold reserves and therefore outraged orthodox thinking.

    Leading Journalist Confirms that Government Could Take Over the Power of Money-Creation for the Public Good 2009

  • And he was also the first president to issue a paper currency - the "greenback" - that wasn't backed by gold or silver.

    NYT > Home Page By PAUL KRUGMAN 2011

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