lira
/ˈlɪərə
/noun (plural lire /ˈlɪərə/ /ˈlɪəreɪ/ /ˈlɪəri/)
1(Until the introduction of the euro in 2002) the basic monetary unit of Italy, notionally equal to 100 centesimos.When the euro went into Italy, the lira suddenly became unpopular with young people....
- Perhaps Maroni wants to go back to the lira so that Italy can de-value it.
- Mussolini believed that a weak lira looked bad for Italy when he was trying to create the image of a super-power in Europe.
2The basic monetary unit of Turkey, equal to 100 kurus.Since Turkey plunged into a deep economic crisis in February the lira has plummeted around 60 percent against the dollar....
- Turkey gave up its defence of the lira last week, leaving the currency to drop by a third in just two days and leaving 65 million Turks facing serious inflationary problems and sharply reduced spending power.
- The bill from the hotel came to 1644 Turkish lira followed by six noughts.
Origin
Italian, from Provençal liura, from Latin libra 'pound'.