(and) that ain't hay
(and) that ain't hay
And that's significant. Often used in reference to an amount of money. He got a $5,000 bonus this year, and that ain't hay.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
That ain't hay.
Inf. That is not a small amount of money. (The highly informal word ain't is built into the expression.) I paid forty dollars for it, and that ain't hay! Bob lost his wallet with $200 in it—and that ain't hay.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
that ain't hay
That's a great deal, especially of money; also, that's important. For example, He's making ten thousand a month, and that ain't hay. Originally used to describe a sum of money that is large, this phrase was later extended to other circumstances, as in She married a titled lord, and that ain't hay. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
and that ain't hay
AMERICAN, INFORMALPeople say and that ain't hay after an amount of money to emphasize that it is a large amount. For 13 out of the last 20 years Canadian bonds produced returns of more than 10%, and that ain't hay.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
That ain’t hay!
exclam. That’s money, not something worthless. That car cost $40,000, and that ain’t hay!
See also: that
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
that ain't hay
That’s a lot; also, that’s important. This American colloquialism, with its ungrammatical “ain’t” for “isn’t,” dates from the first half of the 1900s and at first was used mainly to describe a large amount of money. It was used in this sense in the motion picture The Killers (1946), where a character says, “I’m out ten G’s and that ain’t hay for me these days.” But it was also extended to other matters. Thus, a 1994 television serial, Sally Jessy Raphaël, had it: “Seven husbands! That ain’t hay!”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer