n. A trivial or disappointingly small amount of money.
2014
Squirt a little water on an opponent after a whistle? Well, if the target's Crosby, that's a $5,000 fine. Probably more if the players union hadn't negotiated a maximum that amounts to couch-cushion change.
2014
His Department of Environment and Natural Resources has repeatedly thwarted efforts by environmental groups to hold Duke Energy responsible for its malfeasance in several such spills. For example, the DENR "punished" Duke for the Asheville-Riverbend spillage by fining it all of $99,111, or as some environmentalists have called the fine, "couch-cushion change."
2000 (earliest)
Maybe if Rodney started paying his girls with folding money instead of couch cushion change maybe his stuff wouldn't be such a waste of aluminum.
We are in leaner times, and the General Assembly needs to recognize that. It would have been nice if they had stashed more than sofa-cushion change in the state's Rainy Day Fund in recent years of record economic growth, as most other states did.