"mailbox money" meaning in English

See mailbox money in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: mailbox moneys [plural]
Etymology: From mailbox + money. Etymology templates: {{com|en|mailbox|money}} mailbox + money Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} mailbox money (countable and uncountable, plural mailbox moneys)
  1. Synonym of passive income Tags: countable, uncountable Synonyms: passive income [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-mailbox_money-en-noun-BNmuS5qO Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 57 25 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 65 29 7 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 58 25 17
  2. (film industry, music industry) Income from royalties or residuals, especially from work done in the far past. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-mailbox_money-en-noun-ok6SAvse Categories (other): Music industry
  3. (oil industry) Income from oil royalties. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-mailbox_money-en-noun-XZpaufsH Categories (other): Oil industry

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_text": "From mailbox + money.",
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          "ref": "2023 September 5, u/Iam_motivated_jay, “Mailbox Money! 📫”, in r/hiphopvinyl (Reddit post), archived from the original on 19 Nov 2023:",
          "text": "Mailbox money is the idea of having passive income arrive in your mailbox every month with little work..",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of passive income"
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          "ref": "2020 May 7, David Wagner, “LA Actors Are Losing Unemployment Benefits Based On Work They Did Years Ago”, in LAist, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2021:",
          "text": "Shapiro has played small roles on TV shows such as \"Will & Grace,\" \"House\" and \"2 Broke Girls.\" The residuals she earns from those appearances can be worth anywhere from a few cents to a couple hundred dollars, depending on what shows are in syndication.\nShapiro said finding those checks in her mailbox used to bring her joy -- even when that \"mailbox money\" was miniscule. Now she's petrified to open her mail.",
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          "ref": "2023 June 21, “How DJ Khaled Built a Hip-Hop Empire Off of Relentless Positivity, Self-Promotion and Friends Like Drake and Jay-Z”, in Variety, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2023:",
          "text": "What was once called “mailbox money,” referring to the small but steady stream of checks sent to hit songwriters in the pre-digital age, Khaled dubs “forever money.” He explains of a record like 2010’s “All I Do Is Win”: “It’s not like it’s hot this year and it’s over, right? It’s a winner’s anthem for everybody. You hear it in Super Bowls, basketball games, marching bands, at the airport — it’s everywhere.”",
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          "ref": "2026 August 13, James Hibberd, “Matthew McConaughey: ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ Pays “by Far” My Best “Mailbox Money””, in The Hollywood Reporter, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2026:",
          "text": "“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is the gift that keeps on giving,” McConaughey told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I think it’s probably my favorite rom-com I’ve done. And a lot of people love that rom-com. It still pays the best ‘mailbox money’ of any film I’ve ever done. By far. … When [home video] used to be just DVDs or cable [instead of streaming or VOD], every March I’d get a big check because of Valentine’s Day.”",
          "type": "quotation"
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      "glosses": [
        "Income from royalties or residuals, especially from work done in the far past."
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      "id": "en-mailbox_money-en-noun-ok6SAvse",
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          "residual#Noun"
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      "qualifier": "film industry; music industry; film industry; music industry",
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        "(film industry, music industry) Income from royalties or residuals, especially from work done in the far past."
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          "kind": "other",
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          "ref": "2008 August 1, Miguel Bustillo, “A new lease on life at their feet”, in Los Angeles Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2019:",
          "text": "Brent Rowell leased 60 acres in east Texas for $250 an acre and what he thought was an exceptional 20% cut of whatever the wells produced -- monthly royalty checks known in these parts as “mailbox money.”",
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          "ref": "2012 January 20, Jon Caramanica, “2 Families Face a Gust of Fortune”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2017:",
          "text": "Gerald and Kitten Dowden have a name for the blessing that’s changed their lives and that of their family: “mailbox money.” Not long ago they found that their Shreveport, La., home sits atop a natural-gas well, and now they receive six-figure checks for the hard work of staying put.",
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  "word": "mailbox money"
}
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          "text": "Mailbox money is the idea of having passive income arrive in your mailbox every month with little work..",
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          "text": "Shapiro has played small roles on TV shows such as \"Will & Grace,\" \"House\" and \"2 Broke Girls.\" The residuals she earns from those appearances can be worth anywhere from a few cents to a couple hundred dollars, depending on what shows are in syndication.\nShapiro said finding those checks in her mailbox used to bring her joy -- even when that \"mailbox money\" was miniscule. Now she's petrified to open her mail.",
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          "text": "What was once called “mailbox money,” referring to the small but steady stream of checks sent to hit songwriters in the pre-digital age, Khaled dubs “forever money.” He explains of a record like 2010’s “All I Do Is Win”: “It’s not like it’s hot this year and it’s over, right? It’s a winner’s anthem for everybody. You hear it in Super Bowls, basketball games, marching bands, at the airport — it’s everywhere.”",
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          "text": "“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is the gift that keeps on giving,” McConaughey told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I think it’s probably my favorite rom-com I’ve done. And a lot of people love that rom-com. It still pays the best ‘mailbox money’ of any film I’ve ever done. By far. … When [home video] used to be just DVDs or cable [instead of streaming or VOD], every March I’d get a big check because of Valentine’s Day.”",
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        "(film industry, music industry) Income from royalties or residuals, especially from work done in the far past."
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          "text": "Brent Rowell leased 60 acres in east Texas for $250 an acre and what he thought was an exceptional 20% cut of whatever the wells produced -- monthly royalty checks known in these parts as “mailbox money.”",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              108,
              121
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012 January 20, Jon Caramanica, “2 Families Face a Gust of Fortune”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2017:",
          "text": "Gerald and Kitten Dowden have a name for the blessing that’s changed their lives and that of their family: “mailbox money.” Not long ago they found that their Shreveport, La., home sits atop a natural-gas well, and now they receive six-figure checks for the hard work of staying put.",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
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        "(oil industry) Income from oil royalties."
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}

Download raw JSONL data for mailbox money meaning in English (5.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.