Idiom idiom
angle for farthings
Meaning
To beg out of a prison window with a cap, or box, let down at the end of a long string.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The prisoners angle for farthings to buy extra food.”
“From his high cell window, the man would angle for farthings whenever he heard footsteps in the street below.”
“The desperate captive continued to angle for farthings, hoping that a sympathetic passerby might drop a coin into his dangling tin.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026