Cash in one’s chips

Cash in one’s chips is an idiom. We will examine the meaning of the common saying cash in one’s chips, where it came from, and some examples of its idiomatic usage in sentences.

The literal meaning of cash in one’s chips is to turn in one’s gambling or gaming chips to reap the money that the chips represent. However, the idiom cash in one’s chips can mean to liquidate one’s assets or it can mean to die. The image is of ending a game and reaping the benefits of whatever you have won during that game. The idiom cash in one’s chips came into use in the early 1900s. Poker chips and gambling chips in the shape of discs came into use in the mid-1800s; before this time, numerous objects were used in wagering games, including coins and paper money. Related phrases are cashes in one’s chips, cashed in one’s chips, cashing in one’s chips.

Examples

Who knows if he will run in the future or just cash in his chips now, but one thing is certain: He served as a president, and therefore, should eventually have a presidential museum bearing his name. (Daily Illini)

Thomas “Tom” Lee Dyer Sr., of House Dyer, King of House 112, Protector of Center Street Landscaping, Ungraceful Descender of Ladders, Sipper of Pepsi, 66, of Middleburg, folded and cashed in his chips on Saturday, July 4, 2020. (Daily Item)

While Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man may have cashed in his chips and Chris Evans’ Captain America handed his shield onto the next generation, the third of the original Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes – Chris Hemsworth’s Norse God Thor – still has more adventures ahead post-Avengers: Endgame, with Hemsworth set to return for solo sequel Thor: Love and Thunder. (RadioTimes Magazine)