Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate.
  • noun An excessive or illegally high rate of interest charged on borrowed money.
  • noun Archaic Interest charged or paid on a loan.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Originally, any premium paid, or stipulated to be paid, for the use of money; interest. [Obsolete or archaic.]
  • noun An excessive or inordinate premium paid, or stipulated to be paid, for the use of money borrowed; any such premium in excess of the rate established or permitted by law, which varies locally.
  • noun The practice of lending money at interest, or of taking interest for money lent; specifically, and now almost exclusively, the practice of taking exorbitant or excessive interest; the taking of extortionate interest from the needy or extravagant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Obs. or Archaic A premium or increase paid, or stipulated to be paid, for a loan, as of money; interest.
  • noun obsolete The practice of taking interest.
  • noun (Law) Interest in excess of a legal rate charged to a borrower for the use of money.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable An exorbitant rate of interest, in excess of any legal rates or at least immorally.
  • noun uncountable The practice of lending money at such rates.
  • noun uncountable, archaic The practice of lending money at interest.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an exorbitant or unlawful rate of interest
  • noun the act of lending money at an exorbitant rate of interest

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin ūsūria, alteration of Latin ūsūra, from ūsus, use; see usual.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin usuria, from usura "lending at interest, usury" from usus 'use', from stem of uti 'to use'

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Examples

  • From that time forward the term usury was restricted to excessive interest, and this alone was prohibited.

    An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England Edward Potts Cheyney 1904

  • In the Old Testament stood various texts condemning usury -- the term usury meaning any taking of interest: the law of Moses, while it allowed usury in dealing with strangers, forbade it in dealing with Jews.

    A History of the warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom 1896

  • Watching the news today and they just had Ron Insana talking on msnbc about a report in the Wall Street Journal about how banks are now raising fees on everything and, with some banks now charging up to 29\% interest rates, he used the term usury rates.

    Experience Manifesto 2009

  • The idea that usury is a crime runs deep in the human psyche, well back to biblical times and probably much longer.

    Chasing Chase David 2007

  • The idea that usury is a crime runs deep in the human psyche, well back to biblical times and probably much longer.

    Archive 2007-07-01 David 2007

  • Hence it is by its very nature unlawful to take payment for the use of money lent, which payment is known as usury; and just as a man is bound to restore other ill-gotten goods, so is he bound to restore the money which he has taken in usury.

    The Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas Dino Bigongiari 1997

  • In like manner he commits an injustice who lends wine or wheat and asks for double payment, viz. one, the return of the thing in equal measure, the other, the price of the use, which is called usury.

    The Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas Dino Bigongiari 1997

  • The writer maintains that perhaps because of his rural upbringing, Henry Ford developed a hatred for international banks and the big financial corporations of Wall Street because, to his mind, they dealt in usury, manipulated the stock market, controlled prices and were run mostly by Jews.

    Daimnation!: A few months ago, replying 2003

  • The word usury was very odious to the Christian mind and conscience.

    Usury A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View Calvin Elliott

  • This was the usage of the word usury by the great masters of the

    Usury A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View Calvin Elliott

Comments

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  • i applied online for a segway loan and got a an interest rate of 21.99% from GE! that's usurious! actually, the entire capitalistic economy and society is usurious! we live in an inane world! ahhhhhh!!!!!! chaos theory now! anarchy!

    December 16, 2007