Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A penalty such as a fine.
- transitive verb To penalize by fining or demanding forfeiture.
- transitive verb To take (something) from another person by means of unseemly or deceptive methods.
- transitive verb To take something from (another) by means of unseemly or deceptive methods.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A fine or other penalty imposed on a person for some offense or misdemeanor, usually a pecuniary fine.
- noun A blemish; a defect.
- noun Synonyms Amercement, forfeit, forfeiture, penalty, fine.
- 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. - To punish, in general.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To punish for an offense or misdemeanor by imposing a fine or forfeiture, esp. a pecuniary fine; to fine.
- transitive verb obsolete Hence, to deprive of; to withhold by way of punishment or discipline.
- noun A fine or penalty, esp. a pecuniary punishment or penalty.
- noun obsolete A blemish or defect.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun law A
fine orpenalty , especially apecuniary one. - verb To
impose such a fine or penalty. - verb To
swindle (someone) out ofmoney .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb impose a fine on
- verb deprive of by deceit
- noun money extracted as a penalty
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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My remark was an epitogram -- an axis -- a kind of mulct'em in parvo.
The Gentle Grafter O. Henry 1886
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The American taxpayer was duped and mulct to little avail.
Asher Edelman: Dexia (ONE BANK) $238.9 billion Asher Edelman 2011
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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 2008
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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 2008
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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 princeofcairo 2009
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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.
Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2009
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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 2007
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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 2007
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If he come into debt by contract, or mulct, the case is the same.
Leviathan 2007
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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 2007
trivet commented on the word mulct
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.)
June 2, 2007
jaime_d commented on the word mulct
from the Ring and the Book.
October 1, 2007
mlentini commented on the word mulct
It is not "from" 'The Ring and The Book' -- it is actually a Roman legal concept: multare (to punish) > mulctare > Fr. mulcter > OE mulct.
October 20, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word mulct
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...
October 20, 2007
sionnach commented on the word mulct
mulct and eleemosynary are among my favoritest words ever.
October 20, 2007
dhuber commented on the word mulct
Interesting that it means both to defraud and to fine. One could be mulcted for mulcting, I suppose.
November 22, 2007
bilby commented on the word mulct
Verb multare with meaning 'to impose a fine' still exists in modern Italian.
November 22, 2007
brtom commented on the word mulct
"A new purchase at some monster sale for which a gull has been mulcted. Meretricious finery to deceive the eye." Joyce, Ulysses, 15
January 1, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word mulct
"'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
February 11, 2008
sionnach commented on the word mulct
Ilove the word mulct.
mulct mulct mulct mulct mulct
mulcty mc mulcterson
mulctmeister
February 11, 2008
reesetee commented on the word mulct
It is truly a plinthific word. :-)
February 11, 2008
sionnach commented on the word mulct
Egg-zackly, reesetee.
I have a kind of a soft spot for mulciberian as well.
February 11, 2008
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mulct
"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"
August 21, 2008
libdrone commented on the word mulct
"...unless they are after great friends or pictures of pie, attempting to mulct me would be futile."
May 11, 2011
Silpa commented on the word mulct
The so-called magical diet cure simply ended up mulcting Maria out of hundreds of dollars, but did nothing for her weight.
October 29, 2017