an English question

@dufresne (137)
China
May 18, 2009 7:16am CST
In the sentence "And billionaire authors with their own Manhattan skyscapers and hit prime-time TV series are the rarest of all. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, though Oprah could give me a run for the money if she ever decides to write another book and get into real estate." what's the meaning of "give me a run for the money"?
2 responses
• United States
18 May 09
it means she would be great competition to his interests. consider it as a race between two people for a goal,in this case the money.
• United States
18 May 09
it means that someone is giving you a challenge. like if two people were in a race, and the winner said that the other person "gave him a run for his money" it would mean that the other person really challenged him and put in a good effort to beat him. i hope that explains it for you. :)