cut off with a cent
cut (one) off with a cent
To exclude or disinherit one from someone's will or the fortune of one's family. My parents have threatened to cut me off with a cent once I turn 30, so I really need to find a job. If you continue to fight with your mother like this, she may just cut you off with a cent.
cut off with a cent
dated cliché Intentionally excluded or disinherited from someone's will or the fortune of one's family. Primarily heard in US. The young entrepreneur, cut off with a cent, sailed to Europe to seek a new life without the aid or influence of his family. My father never liked that I gave up medicine to become a writer, and so I was cut off with a cent when he died.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cut off with(out) a shilling/cent
Disinherited. To write a will leaving someone just one shilling is equivalent to being left nothing; without a shilling, of course, explicitly means left nothing. The former is not just an insult. English law at one time required that some bequest be made so as to show that the disinheritance was intentional, and not an oversight. In America, “cent” was sometimes substituted for “shilling.” A cliché since about 1800, the term is now dying out.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer