What it means
Quid means one pound sterling, and the plural stays the same too: one quid, twenty quid, fifty quid. It’s the everyday British way to talk money without sounding stiff, official, or a bit too polished. You’ll hear it all over the UK in pubs, shops, group chats, and moans about the price of everything.
Usage examples
"I only popped in for a cuppa and somehow spent thirty quid on pastries. This place is daylight robbery, let’s nip to the Tesco instead."
"The round came to forty quid, so we all chucked a tenner in and called it even."
"Found a fiver in my old coat, free money, that's five quid towards the weekend."
"That little market stall wanted twelve quid for a toastie, absolute liberty."
"I’ve only got about twenty quid till Friday, so no fancy nonsense this week."
Where it comes from
Quid has been British money slang since the late 1600s. The exact route into English is still debated in finer detail, but the word itself is long-established and fully native in everyday UK speech as a plain informal way to mean one pound sterling. Singular and plural stay the same.
Other ways to say it
This expression also appears in
