rocking-chair money
An American informal expression for unemployment benefits — the idea being that if you're collecting it, you might as well be sitting in a rocking chair doing nothing.
Definitions
An American informal expression for unemployment benefits — the idea being that if you're collecting it, you might as well be sitting in a rocking chair doing nothing. It's a mildly sardonic phrase that implies the recipient is idle, though with more humor than judgment. The image evokes a slow, passive life waiting for checks rather than hustling. Popular enough in mid-20th century American vernacular but not widely used today.
After getting laid off from the plant, he joked he'd be living on rocking-chair money until he found something new.
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(US, informal) unemployment benefit.
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Related terms
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Semantically related
- rocker69%
A rocking chair.
- sit-down money64%
(Australia, chiefly, Australian Aboriginal, colloquial, informal) Welfare or social security, including unemployment benefits, especially such welfare paid to Aboriginal people.
- rocker61%
A curved piece of wood attached to the bottom of a rocking chair or cradle that enables it to rock back and forth.
- leaf-raking56%
(US, usually, pejorative) Marginally productive government-financed employment.