fund

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A source of supply; a stock: a fund of goodwill.
2. n. A sum of money or other resources set aside for a specific purpose: a pension fund.
3. n. Available money; ready cash: short on funds.
4. n. The stock of the British permanent national debt, considered as public securities. Used with the.
5. n. An organization established to administer and manage a sum of money.
6. v. To provide money for paying off the interest or principal of (a debt).
7. v. To convert into a long-term or floating debt with fixed interest payments.
8. v. To place in a fund for accumulation.
9. v. To furnish a fund for: funded the space program.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Bottom. See in the fund, below.
2. n. A stock or accumulation of money or other forms of wealth devoted to or available for some purpose, as for the carrying on of some business or enterprise, or for the support and maintenance of an institution, a family, or a person: as, a sinking fund; the funds of a bank or corporation; the Widows' and Orphans' Fund, etc. A fund may be either active or passive. It is active when the bulk of it is invested in the subjects of the business or enterprise, as merchandise, ships, factories, land, bank loans, etc.; passive when it is invested in such a way (as in real estate or stocks) as to produce a fixed or nearly uniform income, which alone is used for the specific purpose, or when it is used or drawn upon directly for expenses, being insufficient to produce the requisite income by investment, or when it is maintained by collections or contributions for specific objects, as the support of missionaries or of charitable enterprises. Both active and passive funds may be either individual or collective; when collective, an individual interest in the former usually consists of a partnership or the ownership of joint stock, and in the latter of membership or of some right of joint control, unless the contributions are absolute gifts.
3. n. A store of anything to be drawn upon at pleasure; a stock or main source of supply; especially, an equipment of specific mental resources; a stock of knowledge or mental endowment of any kind: as, a fund of wisdom or good sense; a fund of anecdote.
4. To collect and accumulate; store.
5. To convert (a floating debt) into capital or stock, or into a more or less permanent debt, represented by bonds for definite sums, bearing interest at a fixed rate, and commonly redeemable within a fixed period of years. That part of the indebtedness of a government or corporation which is payable immediately or soon, so that early provision for payment must be made or forbearance obtained, is called the floating debt. To fund such an indebtedness is to cancel it by inducing the creditor to take in its place obligations having considerable time to run, and issued, in convenient portions or shares, in the form of interest-bearing bonds or certificates available to the holder as marketable securities; or by procuring a fresh loan on the issue of such obligations, and using the proceeds to pay off the floating indebtedness. To refund a debt is to repeat this process when the time obtained by the funding expires. The funded debt of a body politic or corporate is the aggregate of the debt thus provided for. It is approximately the same in amount as the old debt, unless it is increased, as is often the case, by including in it the expenses of funding, or by issuing the obligations below par. The funded debts of governments are spoken of as the public funds, and the securities issued are spoken of as stocks or bonds. Such securities, when issued by corporations, are usually spoken of in the United States as bonds (the word stocks being applied to shares, which do not represent the debt of a corporation, but ownership in it), and in Great Britain as bonds or debentures. With the funding of a debt is frequently coupled the creation of a sinking-fund for its redemption. See sinking-fund, under fund, n.
6. To go; proceed.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sum or source of money
2. n. An organization managing such money
3. n. A money-management operation, such as a mutual fund
4. n. A large supply of something to be drawn upon.
5. v. transitive To pay for.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An aggregation or deposit of resources from which supplies are or may be drawn for carrying on any work, or for maintaining existence.
2. n. A stock or capital; a sum of money appropriated as the foundation of some commercial or other operation undertaken with a view to profit; that reserve by means of which expenses and credit are supported
3. n. The stock of a national debt; public securities; evidences (stocks or bonds) of money lent to government, for which interest is paid at prescribed intervals; -- called also public funds.
4. n. An invested sum, whose income is devoted to a specific object; ; also, money systematically collected to meet the expenses of some permanent object.
5. n. A store laid up, from which one may draw at pleasure; a supply; a full provision of resources.
6. v. To provide and appropriate a fund or permanent revenue for the payment of the interest of; to make permanent provision of resources (as by a pledge of revenue from customs) for discharging the interest of or principal of.
7. v. To place in a fund, as money.
8. v. To put into the form of bonds or stocks bearing regular interest.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. accumulate a fund for the discharge of a recurrent liability
2. n. a supply of something available for future use
3. v. place or store up in a fund for accumulation
4. v. convert (short-term floating debt) into long-term debt that bears fixed interest and is represented by bonds
5. v. invest money in government securities
6. n. a reserve of money set aside for some purpose
7. v. furnish money for
8. v. provide a fund for the redemption of principal or payment of interest
9. n. a financial institution that sells shares to individuals and invests in securities issued by other companies