usuriousadj.
/juːˈzjʊərɪəs/, /juːˈʒʊərɪəs/, U.S. /juˈʒʊriəs/ 1. in extended use.1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Pile up thine house with obligatory parchment,..farme out th' usurious time..and let each day redouble thine hundreds.
a. Characterized by, of the nature of or involving, usury or excessive interest.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > moneylending > [adjective] > relating to or characterized by usury
usurous1605
usurious1610
usurarious1623
usurary1649
feneratorial1793
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 748 Vsurious contracts, voluptuous and vicious life.
1611 R. Fenton Treat. Vsurie 21 If it be a gaine couenanted meerely in respect of loane, it is condemned as vsurious.
1678 R. L'Estrange tr. Of Happy Life xii. 154 in Seneca's Morals Abstracted (1679) We have found out wayes..by Bloody Usurious Contracts, to undoe one another.
1729 G. Jacob New Law-dict. at Usury A Bond..shall not be avoided by a corrupt usurious Agreement between others.
1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 798 An usurious loan To be refunded duely, when his vote..shall have earn'd its worthy price.
1840 T. Hood Miss Kilmansegg iii, in New Monthly Mag. 60 402 Fruits obtain'd before they were due At a discount most usurious.
1855 H. H. Milman Hist. Lat. Christianity IV. ix. vii. 125 The Jews were especially to be compelled..to abandon all their usurious claims.
1870 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David I. 209 To lend money even at the lowest interest to their fellow farmers [sc. Jews] in times of poverty would have been usurious.
b. Of interest, etc.: Charged by way of, acquired by virtue of, usury; exorbitant, excessive. Frequently with interest.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > moneylending > [adjective] > relating to or characterized by usury > charged as usury
usurious1611
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Vsuraire, vsurious; taken, or giuen for interest or vse.
1729 G. Jacob New Law-dict. at Usury It is not material, whether the Payment of the Principal and the usurious Interest, be secured by the same, or by different Conveyances.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. ix. 118 The same usurious interest which is usually required from bankrupts. View more context for this quotation
1812 G. Crabbe Tales xiv. 252 If thus he grasp'd at such usurious gains.
1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. iv. 46 A usurious rate of interest—fifty or sixty per cent.
1880 L. Oliphant Land of Gilead x. 291 To lend money on mortgage..at a reasonable rate, instead of at the usurious percentage at present charged.
2.
a. Practising usury; taking or charging excessive interest on loaned money; exacting in respect of interest. Also transferred.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > moneylending > [adjective] > relating to or characterized by usury > practising usury
usuring1593
money-monging1594
usurous1605
usurarious1623
usuriousa1631
money-mongering1648
a1631 J. Donne Love's Usury 2 For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now, I will allow, Usurious God of Love, twenty to thee.
1635 F. Quarles Emblemes iii. xv. Epigr. 183 Plead not; Vsurious Nature will have all, As well the Int'rest, as the Principall.
1836 J. Abbott Way to do Good iii. 96 The most hard-hearted usurious creditor.
1870 J. R. Macduff Memories of Patmos x. 136 The usurious vendors dealing out a stinted penny~worth to the famishing.
1870 H. Smart Race for Wife iv. 78 Even a usurious solicitor is possessed of pride of some kind.
b. Characteristic of a usurer.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > moneylending > [adjective] > relating to or characterized by usury > characteristic of usurer
Lombardinian1602
usurious1727
fifty-per-cent1825
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Usuriousness, usurious or extortioning Quality or Disposition.
1832 Rolls of Parl. Index 958 The usurious Conduct of Peter de Appelby.
1862 J. Small Eng. Metr. Hom. p. vii The knight, whose usurious feelings suddenly returned, proposed to the beggar to leave the grain.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > sufficient quantity, amount, or degree > abundance > [adjective] > liberal or unstinted in quantity
sparelessa1400
liberalc1405
ample1447
unstinted1480
superaboundinga1513
rich1561
handsome1577
free1635
unstraitened1665
unmeasured out1667
generous1720
usurious1780
stintless1844
showering1892
1780 E. Burke Speech Bristol previous to Election 21 I shall..pay,— ample atonement, and usurious amends to..humanity for my unhappy lapse.
Derivatives
uˈsuriously adv.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > moneylending > [adverb] > at interest > with excessive interest
usuriously1670
1670 T. Culpeper Necessity abating Usury 38 Finding..nothing sweet but summes usuriously improved.
1798 S. T. Coleridge in J. Cottle Early Recoll. (1837) I. 311 To make the present moment act fraudulently and usuriously towards the future time.
1808 H. More Cœlebs in Search of Wife I. xii. 152 She flatters egregiously and universally, on the principle of being paid back usuriously in the same coin.
uˈsuriousness n. rare Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
ΚΠ
1727Usuriousness [see sense 2b].
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1926; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1610