"On the Cuff"

Posted by Bob February 22, 2000In reply to "On the Cuff" posted by Bruce Kahl on February 22, 2000

After I helped my mechanic tidy up his Win98 desktop and created a few shortcuts, he let me have an oil change "on the cuff", a phrase I have not heard in a while.
Anybody? Ms. Joplin??

OED shows usage in this sense back to 1927, and a few references from the '40s. It sounds to me like a depression-era expression, when a lot of business was conducted as barter.