lighten someone's purse

English

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Verb

lighten someone's purse (third-person singular simple present lightens someone's purse, present participle lightening someone's purse, simple past and past participle lightened someone's purse)

1. (idiomatic) to take money from someone.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     For when Robin Hood caught a baron or a squire, or a fat abbot or bishop, he brought them to the greenwood tree and feasted them before he lightened their purses.