investment

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of investing.
2. n. An amount invested.
3. n. Property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit.
4. n. A commitment, as of time or support.
5. n. A military siege.
6. n. Archaic A garment; a vestment.
7. n. Archaic An outer covering or layer.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That with which a person or thing is invested or covered; clothing; vestment; covering.
2. n. The act of investing, or the state of being invested, as with a right, office, or attribute; endowment; investiture.
3. n. A surrounding or hemming in; blockade of the avenues of ingress and egress, as for the besieging of a town or fortress; inclosure by armed force or other obstruction.
4. n. An investing of money or capital; expenditure for profit or future benefit; a placing or conversion of capital in a way intended to secure income or profit from its employment: as, an investment in active business, or in stocks, land, or the like; to make safe investment of one's principal.
5. n. That which is invested; money or capital laid out for the purpose of producing profit or benefit.
6. n. That in which money is laid out or invested: as, land is the safest investment.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of investing, or state of being invested.
2. n. finance A placement of capital in expectation of deriving income or profit from its use.
3. n. That with which anyone is invested; a vestment.
4. n. military The act of surrounding, blocking up, or besieging by an armed force, or the state of being so surrounded.
5. n. A mixture of silica sand and plaster which, by surrounding a wax pattern, creates a negative mold of the form used for casting, among other metals, bronze.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of investing, or the state of being invested.
2. n. That with which anyone is invested; a vestment.
3. n. (Mil.) The act of surrounding, blocking up, or besieging by an armed force, or the state of being so surrounded.
4. n. The laying out of money in the purchase of some species of property; also, the amount of money invested, or that in which money is invested.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. outer layer or covering of an organ or part or organism
2. n. the commitment of something other than money (time, energy, or effort) to a project with the expectation of some worthwhile result
3. n. money that is invested with an expectation of profit
4. n. the ceremonial act of clothing someone in the insignia of an office; the formal promotion of a person to an office or rank
5. n. the act of investing; laying out money or capital in an enterprise with the expectation of profit
6. n. the act of putting on robes or vestments