Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To pledge (property) as security or collateral without delivery of title or possession.
  • transitive verb Usage Problem To hypothesize.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To pledge to a creditor in security for some debt or demand, but without giving the creditor corporeal control; mortgage, leaving the owner in possession.
  • To put in pledge by delivery, as stocks or effects of any kind, as security for a debt or other obligation.

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

  • transitive verb (Law) To subject, as property, to liability for a debt or engagement without delivery of possession or transfer of title; to pledge without delivery of possession; to mortgage, as ships, or other personal property; to make a contract by bottomry. See hypothecation, bottomry.

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

  • verb transitive To pledge (something) as surety for a loan; to pawn, mortgage.
  • verb politics, UK To designate a new tax or tax increase for a specific expenditure

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

  • verb to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds
  • verb pledge without delivery or title of possession

Etymologies

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

[Medieval Latin hypothēcāre, hypothēcāt-, from Latin hypothēca, pledge, deposit, from Greek hupothēkē, from hupotithenai, to give as a pledge, suppose; see hypothesis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin hypothecatus, past participle of hypothecare. This was in turn derived from Ancient Greek ὑποθήκη (hupothēkē, "a pledge"), from the verb ὑποτίθημι (hupotithēmi, "to pledge as surety").

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Examples

  • Yesterday's term was hypothecate, which is defined as:

    Sui Generis--a New York law blog: 2006

  • Yesterday's term was hypothecate, which is defined as:

    Define That Term #74 2006

  • If Jason's daddy was a schlepper with no collateral to hypothecate this mortgage wouldn't get done today.

    Martin T. Sosnoff: My S&M Relationship With Citi and Morgan Martin T. Sosnoff 2011

  • If Jason's daddy was a schlepper with no collateral to hypothecate this mortgage wouldn't get done today.

    Martin T. Sosnoff: My S&M Relationship With Citi and Morgan Martin T. Sosnoff 2011

  • When the Senator is trapped in the coils of his own creation – did he hypothesize or hypothecate?

    Stromata Blog: 2008

  • When the Senator is trapped in the coils of his own creation – did he hypothesize or hypothecate?

    Our Feckless Libertarian Friends 2008

  • He could buy certificates of city loan for the sinking-fund up to any reasonable amount, hypothecate them where he pleased, and draw his pay from the city without presenting a voucher.

    The Financier 2004

  • For example, both Scalia and Rehnquist misused the word “hypothecate,” apparently confusing it with the near homonym “hypothesize,” which, admittedly, a dictionary or two will give as a secondary definition (in my view, this merely a reification of the sound-alike confusion and reflects the descriptive (as opposed to prescriptive) philosophy of the editor).

    Business, Law, Economics & Society 2004

  • For example, both Scalia and Rehnquist misused the word “hypothecate,” apparently confusing it with the near homonym “hypothesize,” which, admittedly, a dictionary or two will give as a secondary definition (in my view, this merely a reification of the sound-alike confusion and reflects the descriptive (as opposed to prescriptive) philosophy of the editor).

    Business, Law, Economics & Society 2004

  • “He is trying to hypothecate the lot or any part of it at one-fifty.”

    The Titan 2004

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