cash desk

[tulipflower]

What is the equivalent of 'cash desk' in American English?

 

[probus]

If you are talking about a store or retail shop it's the cash register, sometimes shortened to just "the cash".

 

[jutfrank]

If you are talking about a store or retail shop it's the cash register, sometimes shortened to just "the cash".

Isn't the register the thing that the employee puts the money in?

From looking at some dictionary entries, the cash desk is the counter that you put the items on for the assistant to process. I suppose the word comes from the idea that the customer places their cash there too. I never use the word. I certainly wouldn't teach it. I didn't even know it's a British English word, to be honest.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

If you're asking about the place where you pay for what you're buying, we call it checkout, the checkout, or the checkout counter.

They all mean the same thing.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

If you are talking about a store or retail shop it's the cash register, sometimes shortened to just "the cash".

I've never heard checkout called the cash. But I'll remember that next time I'm up in Canada!

 

[jutfrank]

we call it ... the checkout, or the checkout counter.

That's what I call it too.

 

[tulipflower]

I found it in 'Oxford Word Skills" book, basic level, by Ruth Gairns & Stuart Redman, page 53

 

[emsr2d2]

Even most BrE speakers don't use "cash desk" much these days. We use "till", which is both the machine and the desk.

Helen: Will you be much longer?
John: No. I'm on my way to the till so I should be out in a couple of minutes.