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  1. mulct love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A penalty such as a fine.
  2. v. To penalize by fining or demanding forfeiture.
  3. v. To acquire by trickery or deception.
  4. v. To defraud or swindle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A fine or other penalty imposed on a person for some offense or misdemeanor, usually a pecuniary fine.
  2. n. A blemish; a defect.
  3. n. Synonyms Amercement, forfeit, forfeiture, penalty, fine.
  4. To punish by fine or forfeiture; deprive of some possession as a penalty; deprive: formerly with either the crime or the criminal as object, now only with the latter: followed by in or of before the thing: as, to mulct a person in $300; to mulct a person of something.
  5. To punish, in general.

Wiktionary

  1. n. law A fine or penalty, especially a pecuniary one.
  2. v. To impose such a fine or penalty.
  3. v. To swindle (someone) out of money.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A fine or penalty, esp. a pecuniary punishment or penalty.
  2. n. obsolete A blemish or defect.
  3. v. To punish for an offense or misdemeanor by imposing a fine or forfeiture, esp. a pecuniary fine; to fine.
  4. v. obsolete Hence, to deprive of; to withhold by way of punishment or discipline.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. impose a fine on
  2. v. deprive of by deceit
  3. n. money extracted as a penalty

Etymologies

  1. From Latin mulcta, from Proto-Italic. (Wiktionary)
  2. From Middle English multen, to fine, from Latin multāre, mulctāre, from mulcta, fine. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “My remark was an epitogram -- an axis -- a kind of mulct'em in parvo.”

    The Gentle Grafter

  • “The American taxpayer was duped and mulct to little avail.”

    The Huffington Post: Asher Edelman: Dexia (ONE BANK) $238.9 billion

  • “From the Mirza title, it appears the Qandahar Police Chief may not have been relying on physical coercion as much as accountant-based or bookkeeping tactics to mulct the local merchant. back”

    Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier

  • “Abd al-Rahman's textual reforms resulted in another version of widespread economic malaise, one with a coercive literati using innovative state documents and records to mulct merchants, extort office holders, and extract inordinate amounts of resources from the general population.”

    Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier

  • “I wouldn't want ya ta get run over by a street-car. mulct Robinson for cash, and then exploit his painting hobby for more.”

    princeofcairo: Film Fest In July

  • “Thereupon I taught her that in every well-constituted city the citizens are not content merely to pass good laws, but they further choose them guardians of the laws,208 whose function as inspectors is to praise the man whose acts are law-abiding, or to mulct some other who offends against the law.”

    Oeconomicus

  • “As where a law exacteth a pecuniary mulct of them that take the name of God in vain, the payment of the mulct is not the price of a dispensation to swear, but the punishment of the transgression of a law indispensable.”

    Leviathan

  • “It is the act of the assembly because voted by the major part; and if it be a crime, the assembly may be punished, as far forth as it is capable, as by dissolution, or forfeiture of their letters (which is to such artificial and fictitious bodies, capital) or, if the assembly have a common stock, wherein none of the innocent members have propriety, by pecuniary mulct.”

    Leviathan

  • “If he come into debt by contract, or mulct, the case is the same.”

    Leviathan

  • “And though the assembly have right to impose mulct upon any of their members that shall break the laws they make; yet out of the colony itself, they have no right to execute the same.”

    Leviathan

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. forfeiture
  1. forfeit
  1. penalty
  1. amercement
  1. fine
  1. exaction
  1. deprive

hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. impose
  1. Levy

same context (13)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. escheat
  2. noncompliance
  1. straitness
  2. corporall
  1. attainder
  2. good-fortune
  1. outlawry
  2. indemnification
  1. forfeitures
  2. malfeasance
  1. stinginess
  2. amercement
  1. free-kick

rhymes (1)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. sulked

reverse dictionary (17)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. mulct
  2. ban
  3. sconce
  1. fine
  2. fightwite
  3. doom
  1. merce
  2. wite
  3. mercement
  1. healsfang
  2. amerce
  3. amercement
  1. forfeit
  2. forfeiture
  3. scot
  1. danger
  2. penalty

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. woty09
  1. cvccc

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Lists

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Comments

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  • libdrone "...unless they are after great friends or pictures of pie, attempting to mulct me would be futile." May 11, 2011

  • milosrdenstvi "Monitor to note those who miss Lectures, and give their name to the Humanity Lecturer who shall punish them not by pecuniary mulcts but by tasks of making Verses, Themes, Epistles, or getting anything without book. All pecuniary mulcts of Undergraduates to be abolished, and Exercises, Admonitions, Recantations, and Expulsions (according to the nature of the crime) to succeed in their room."

    -- Isaac Newton, "Of Educating Youth in Universities" Aug 21, 2008

  • sionnach Egg-zackly, reesetee.
    I have a kind of a soft spot for mulciberian as well. Feb 11, 2008

  • reesetee It is truly a plinthific word. :-) Feb 11, 2008

  • sionnach Ilove the word mulct.

    mulct mulct mulct mulct mulct
    mulcty mc mulcterson
    mulctmeister     Feb 11, 2008

  • chained_bear "'You must know that in their wisdom the Lords of the Admiralty have laid down that for the first six months of his commission no captain may presume to fire more shot a month than one third the number of his guns under various heavy mulcts and penalties; and after that only half as many.'" --Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 73 Feb 11, 2008

  • brtom "A new purchase at some monster sale for which a gull has been mulcted. Meretricious finery to deceive the eye." Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Dec 31, 2007

  • bilby Verb multare with meaning 'to impose a fine' still exists in modern Italian.
    Nov 21, 2007

  • dhuber Interesting that it means both to defraud and to fine. One could be mulcted for mulcting, I suppose. Nov 21, 2007

  • sionnach mulct and eleemosynary are among my favoritest words ever. Oct 20, 2007

  • chained_bear Thanks for these comments! This has to be one of the oldest, and weirdest, words I've ever come across. Learn something every day, I does... Oct 20, 2007

  • mlentini It is not "from" 'The Ring and The Book' -- it is actually a Roman legal concept: multare (to punish) > mulctare > Fr. mulcter > OE mulct. Oct 20, 2007

  • jaime_d from the Ring and the Book. Sep 30, 2007

  • trivet n.: A penalty such as a fine.
    tr.v.: To penalize by fining or demanding forfeiture. / To acquire by trickery or deception. / To defraud or swindle.

    (From Middle English multen, to fine, from Latin multre, mulctre, from mulcta, fine.) Jun 2, 2007

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‘mulct’ has been looked up 4735 times, loved by 7 people, added to 95 lists, commented on 14 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.