Definition of "petrodollars" [petrodollars]

• Money in any number of currencies that is paid to oil-producing countries, which then deposit it into Western banks. (noun-plural)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Soon the fact of Russian bombers approaching UK airspace will cease to be news but for the moment the resumption of such flights by a Russian Air Force currently in receipt of burgeoning amounts of petrodollars is sufficiently novel for newspapers and other media to comment on the fact."
• "By the away about the trillions US owe to Saudis and Abu-Dhabi and probably Dubai is called petrodollars and mainly re-invested in USA and it seems to be part of it lost with the falling economy, washed away."
• "But ironically, while Gulf states seek promising ways to invest their "petrodollars," earned as crude-oil prices have surged to near $100 a barrel, signs are growing that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries might soon increase oil output amid forecasts of U.S. economic gloom, driven in part by those higher oil prices."