wallet

From Middle English walet (“a bag, knapsack”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from an assumed Old Northern French *walet (“a roll; bag; a knapsack”), from Proto-Germanic *wal- (“to roll”). More at walk, well, wallow.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒl.ɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑl.ət/, /ˈwɔl.ət/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒ.lɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlɪt

wallet (plural wallets)

1. (US, UK) A small case, often flat and often made of leather, for keeping money (especially paper money), credit cards, etc.

   The thief stole all the money and credit cards out of the old man's wallet.

   I forgot my wallet and left it at home.

   • 1987 August 15, Robert Benitez, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 5, page 14:

     Master leathercrafter does handcrafted wallets, belts, purses, handbags etc., supporting self and helpers. Good enough to carve fantst art and portraits into leather.

2. (by extension, informal) A person's bank account or assets.

   It's unknown if the pro running back's recent sex scandal will hit him in the wallet or not.

   • 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 6:

     In all of India, China, Africa, and much of the southern American continent, those who had the leisure and wallet for fashion—or more simply, in the poorer latitudes, for the mere acquisition of things—would have killed for the street merchandise of Manhattan […]

3. (computing, finance) An e-wallet or digital wallet.
4. A thick case or folder with plastic sleeves in which compact discs may be stored.

   I won an auction online for a cheap CD wallet.

5. (archaic) A bag or pouch.

   He brought with him a large wallet with some provisions for the road.

6. (slang) A person's buttocks (the area of the body nearest where one keeps one's wallet).

   He fell down and landed on his wallet.

• billfold
• pocketbook

• → Japanese: ウォレット

• purse
• scrip

• Atwell, Etwall, all wet

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

wallet

1. second-person plural subjunctive I of wallen