budget

Etymology

Recorded since 1432 as Middle English bogett, bouget, bowgette (“leather pouch”), borrowed from Old French bougette, the diminutive of bouge (“leather bag, wallet”) (also the root of bulge), itself from Late Latin bulga (“leather bag, bellow”), which derives from Gaulish *bolgā (compare Old Irish bolg (“bag”), Breton bolc’h (“flax pod”)), a common root with the Germanic family (compare Dutch balg (“bellows”)), from the Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-. More at belly.

noun

1. The amount of money or resources earmarked for a particular institution, activity or timeframe.
   limited budget
   unlimited budget
   tight budget
   within the budget
   over the budget
   At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes. 1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103
   The latest Tory budget continued the trend begun in 2000 by making further small cuts in family income taxes. 2008, David Mutimer, Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs 2002, page 220
   The most common poly budget in use for games at the time of this writing is between 5,000 and 10,000 tris. 2009, Andrew Paquette, Computer Graphics for Artists II: Environments and Characters
   1. (by implication) A relatively small amount of available money.
      We're on a budget, so we can't afford to eat at that restaurant.
2. An itemized summary of intended expenditure; usually coupled with expected revenue.
3. (obsolete) A wallet, purse or bag.
   The king holds up a hand to the lute player: ‘Thank you, leave us.’ The boy stuffs his music back into his budget and goes out backwards. 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 364
4. (obsolete) A compact collection of things.
5. (obsolete, military) A socket in which the end of a cavalry carbine rests.

adj

1. Appropriate to a restricted budget.
   We flew on a budget airline.
   A classic budget game, there isn't really anything outstanding about Rescue at all. 1991 December, “The YS Official Top 100 Part 3”, in Your Sinclair, number 72

verb

1. (intransitive) To construct or draw up a budget.
   Budgeting is even harder in times of recession
2. (transitive) To provide funds, allow for in a budget.
   The PM’s pet projects are budgeted rather generously
3. (transitive) To plan for the use of in a budget.
   The prestigious building project is budgeted in great detail, from warf facilities to the protocollary opening.