cookie jarn.
/ˈkʊkɪ dʒɑː/, U.S. /ˈkʊki ˌdʒɑr/ Originally and chiefly North American.
1. A large jar or other container with a lid, used to store biscuits or the like.Traditionally also used as a place in which to keep money or savings.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > container for food > [noun] > chest, box, or bag > for biscuits or crackers
biscuit sack1740
biscuit barrel1787
biscuit bag1837
cracker-box1857
cookie jar1871
cracker-barrel1877
1871 Steubenville (Ohio) Weekly Herald 30 June She really ought to bake to-day. The cookie jar was almost empty.
1989 S. Bradfield Hist. Luminous Motion (1990) ix. 71 Stuffing my coat pockets full with quarters from a tin cookie jar in the kitchen.
2019 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 June (Food section) e3 She extracted chocolaty-looking biscotti from one of the glass cookie jars lining the shelves in her kitchen.
2.
a. figurative and in figurative contexts. Money that a government, organization, etc., has available to spend; a reserve of money, funds.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > set apart for a purpose
box1389
packa1393
stock1463
bank1559
fund1660
fond1664
nest-egg1801
money fund1860
cookie jar1936
1936 Iron Age 27 Aug. 25 Let's pretend that the voters of this country are too ignorant or indifferent to see through our pretending and to spank us for rifling the public cookie jar.
1970 Washington Post 9 Aug. a2/1 The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, a massive..guide to the $28 billion federal cookie jar, lists 1,019..programs, including..help for ‘higher education, general’ and..emergency preparedness.
2018 Western Mail (Cardiff) (Nexis) 1 Nov. 29 The council's finance officer..told full council..the £9.3m general reserves pot, which could be used in an emergency, was at ‘the lowest level..’. It was another case, financially-speaking, of ‘hands off my cookie jar’.
b. As a modifier, designating or relating to an accounting practice in which a company sets aside money when it is performing well and uses it in later years to conceal declining profits or losses, as in cookie-jar accounting, cookie-jar reserves, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > keeping accounts > [noun] > specific processes
allowance1528
allocation1535
writing1732
liquidating1749
set-off1766
write-back1873
whack1885
clear-up1901
virement1902
accrual accounting1915
writedown1920
accruals accounting1963
cookie jar1975
1975 R. E. Cheney in Crit. Issues in Public Relations (Hill & Knowlton, Inc.) iii. 32 We now find companies burying earnings whenever possible through what has come to be called cookie jar accounting. Five years ago, a manager was much more apt to let the future take care of itself.
1998 USA Today 29 Sept. b3 Among accounting trickery he cited..‘cookie jar reserves’..taken in good times but used in bad times to hide falling earnings.
2015 F. F. Wherry & J. Schor SAGE Encycl. Econ. & Society 19/1 Cookie jar accounting may make investors happy in the short term, but it tends to cause major concerns further down the line.
Phrases
with one's hand (also hands) in the cookie jar (and variants): doing something wrong, unauthorized, or illegal, esp. misusing public funds, stealing, or abusing a position of power or privilege; frequently in to get caught with one's hand in the cookie jar.
ΚΠ
1933 Los Angeles Times 5 June a4 Charlie got caught with his hand in the cookie jar the other day, pulling one of the oldest and shabbiest of political tricks.
1989 Army July 13/1 Public consensus began to change... People with their hands in the cookie jar, cost overruns..and the decreasing value of the dollar combined to begin washing away the..mandate for increased defense spending.
2016 Canad. Govt. News (Nexis) 26 Oct. The Liberals got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, leaning on stakeholders for donations in exchange for access to ministers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1871