cash on the line

English

Noun

cash on the line (uncountable)

1. Synonym of cash on the barrelhead
   • 2004, Tabor Evans, Longarm and the Two-Bit Posse:

     Everything here is cash on the line. You can pay in advance for your room if you like, or you can pay every morning to keep the room that night.

   • 2012, James Still, Ted Olson, The Hills Remember: The Complete Short Stories of James Still:

     Cash on the line had to be paid for them cattle.

   • 2013, Erich Maria Remarque, The Black Obelisk, page 114:

     On this lovely day, amid the song of birds and the aroma of coffee, let us take a holy oath not to sell these two crosses except for cash on the line!

   • 2014, Victor Serge, Birth of Our Power, page 36:

     But one of the boys, who didn't believe in anything either, found it even more convenient to make blood money on you and sold you out to fat policemen—cash on the line.

2. Cash that is on hand for any expenses.
   • 1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream:

     We'll need some decent equipment and plenty of cash on the line—if only for drugs and a super-sensitive tape recorder, for the sake of a permanent record.

   • 1988, Wayne C. Booth, The Vocation of a Teacher: Rhetorical Occasions, 1967-1988:

     Many of us are, after all, writers manqué: we too were going to be men of letters once — novelists, columnists, editors — men whose words would change the world, men whose words would even mean cash on the line.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cash,‎ on the line.