shil·ling / ˈshiling/ • n. 1. a former British coin and monetary unit equal to one twentieth of a pound or twelve pence.2. the basic monetary unit in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, equal to 100 cents.

shilling a former British coin and monetary unit equal to one twentieth of a pound or twelve pence; the word is recorded from Old English (in form scilling), and was traditionally used in emphatic or rhetorical statements when the speaker wished to be understood as reckoning or accounting for the cost of every item.
take the king's (or queen's) shilling enlist in the army. The reference is to the shilling formerly given to a recruit on enlistment.

shilling OE. sċilling = OS., OHG. skilling ((M)Du. schelling, G. schilling), ON. skillingr, Goth. skilliggs :- Gmc. *skillingaz, of unkn. orig.