shekel

Etymology

From Hebrew שֶׁקֶל (shékel, “shekel”), from שָׁקַל (shakál, “to weigh”), from Akkadian 𒂅 (šiqlum).

noun

1. A currency unit of both ancient and modern Israel.
2. (slang) Money.
   Her gownlet cost five hundred beans; / Her furs, four figures in a row; / Her hat removed from papa's jeans / A hundred shekels more or so. 1914, The Judge, volume 66
   […] after the 1887-9 campaign was the great refuge of the destitute who, as they could not hope to rake in a breast-full of medals and decorations, expected, at any rate, to amass a good few shekels. 1924, James Alban Wilson, Sport and Service in Assam and Elsewhere, page 288
   The mob had filched anything that might earn them a shekel or two. 2018, Gerry Woodhouse, Lord Damnus: Conqueror of the World
3. (historical) An ancient unit of weight equivalent to one-fiftieth of a mina.