The idiom likely originates withhorse racing, where one can get enjoyment "from watching the race even if one does not win much." Its usage was first recorded in 1874.[1]
Since the beginning of the world all men have hunted me like a wolf—kings and sages, and poets and lawgivers, all the churches, and all the philosophies. But I have never been caught yet, and the skies will fall in the time I turn to bay. I have given them a goodrun for their money, and I will now.
1918,Peter B. Kyne, chapter 24, inThe Valley of the Giants:
"If your competitor regards you as a menace to his pocketbook, he can give you a nice littlerun for your money and delay you indefinitely."
He appealed and, by some arrangement or other, got leave to state his case personally to the Court of Revision. Said, I believe, that he did not much trust lawyers, but that if the sahibs would give him a hearing, as man to man, he might have arun for his money.
Usually preceded by the verbto give followed by a noun or pronoun which functions as anindirect object identifying the person(s) receiving the run for their money:
