cashier

From Dutch casseren, kasseren, from Old French casser (“to break (up)”). During a ceremonial cashiering of a ranking military officer, the breakup was often symbolized dramatically by literally breaking the officer’s sword.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈʃɪə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

cashier (third-person singular simple present cashiers, present participle cashiering, simple past and past participle cashiered)

1. (transitive, now rare) To dismiss (someone, especially military personnel) from service.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 34, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     His ninth Legion having mutined neere unto Placentia, he presently cassiered the same with great ignominie unto it […].

   • 1863 February 1, “Politics of Military Commanders.”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The recent cashiering for disobedience of orders of a Major-General who is claimed, we know not with what truth, to be of the "conservative" order, has raised this outcry louder and fiercer than ever.

   • 1968, Revilo P. Oliver, “What We Owe Our Parasites” (speech):

     They found an Army officer who had been a military failure until Bernard Baruch promoted him to General, and who in 1945 should have been able to hope for nothing better than that he could escape a court martial and thus avoid being cashiered, if he could prove that all the atrocities and all the sabotage of American interests of which he had been guilty in Europe had been carried out over his protest and under categorical orders from the President.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 510:

     The Directory had been deregulating the economy since Thermidor; but it had not cashiered the police spies on which the Terror had depended, and these allowed the government to keep abreast of the threat.

   • 2012, Jonathan Keates, “Mon Père, ce héros”, in Literary Review, section 402:

     Inevitably his appeals for financial assistance were ignored and, though not cashiered from the army, he was pointedly cold-shouldered by his brother officers.

2. (transitive) To discard, put away.
   • April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair‎^[2]:

     Once Princess in Love was published, Diana threw both Hewitt and Pasternak under the bus. Besotted to the end, her cashiered toy soldier never revealed whether or not he had done her bidding.

     adapted from the book The Palace Papers, published 2022 by Penguin Books

3. (transitive) To annul.

Borrowed from Dutch cassier or French caissier, from French caisse.

• casheer (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kaˈʃɪə/, /ˈkaʃɪə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

cashier (plural cashiers)

1. One who works at a till or receives payments.
   • 2007, Thomas Quealy, M + M:

     The chefs never cooked before, the cashiers never cashiered before, the dishwashers never dishwashed before, the waitresses never waitressed before, and the managers never managed before.

   • 2012, Freeman Hall, Coworker Hell: A Retail Hell Underground Digital Short:

     So when everyone was stopping at the grocery store for one or two things on the way home from work, inundating each express lane with at least ten custies, the cashier on the express lane was due for a break […]

2. Person in charge of the cash of a business or bank.

• saraf (early modern Middle East & India), shroff (India, SE & East Asia, esp. in parking lots)

• → Punjabi: ਕੈਸ਼ੀਅਰ (kaiśīara)

cashier (third-person singular simple present cashiers, present participle cashiering, simple past and past participle cashiered)

1. (intransitive) To work as a cashier (at a till or receiving payment).
   • 1983 May 15, Linda Dyer, “A CUSTOMER'S RIGHTS”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:

     The employer places more emphasis on cashiering skills. Taking the customer's money has risen in importance to the point where many stores have specialists whose sole duty is manning the cash registers.

   • 2007, Thomas Quealy, M + M:

     The chefs never cooked before, the cashiers never cashiered before, the dishwashers never dishwashed before, the waitresses never waitressed before, and the managers never managed before.

• Archies, archies, Raiches, chaires, cahiers