Definitions

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

  • noun The condition of being sure, especially of oneself; self-assurance.
  • noun Something beyond doubt; a certainty.
  • noun A pledge or formal promise made to secure against loss, damage, or default; a security.
  • noun One who has contracted to be responsible for another, especially one who assumes responsibilities or debts in the event of another party's default.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Certainty; indubitableness: especially in the phrase of a surety, certainly, indubitably.
  • noun Security; safety.
  • noun That which makes sure, firm, or certain; foundation of stability; ground of security.
  • noun Security against loss or damage; security for payment or for the performance of some act.
  • noun One who has made himself responsible for another; specifically, in law, one who has bound himself with or for another who remains primarily liable; one who has contracted with the creditor or claimant that he will be answerable for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another; one who enters into a bond or recognizance or other obligation to answer for another's appearance in court, or for his payment of a debt or his performance of some act, and who, in case of the principal's failure, can be compelled to pay the debt or damages; a bondsman; a bail.
  • noun Hence A sponsor.
  • To act as surety for; guarantee; be bail or security for.

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

  • noun The state of being sure; certainty; security.
  • noun That which makes sure; that which confirms; ground of confidence or security.
  • noun Security against loss or damage; security for payment, or for the performance of some act.
  • noun (Law) One who is bound with and for another who is primarily liable, and who is called the principal; one who engages to answer for another's appearance in court, or for his payment of a debt, or for performance of some act; a bondsman; a bail.
  • noun Hence, a substitute; a hostage.
  • noun obsolete Evidence; confirmation; warrant.
  • transitive verb obsolete To act as surety for.

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

  • noun certainty
  • noun law A promise to pay a sum of money in the event that another person fails to fulfill an obligation.
  • noun law One who undertakes to pay money or perform other acts in the event that his principal fails therein.

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

  • noun a guarantee that an obligation will be met
  • noun property that your creditor can claim in case you default on your obligation
  • noun something clearly established
  • noun a prisoner who is held by one party to insure that another party will meet specified terms
  • noun one who provides a warrant or guarantee to another

Etymologies

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

[Middle English surte, from Old French, from Latin sēcūritās, from sēcūrus, sure; see secure.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman seurté, from Latin securitas, securitatem.

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Examples

  • Unfortunately the online DoD database does not provide viewers with dates of service, but while absolute surety is not provided here, it is certainly possible that one or both entries listed in that database and the man named in your inquiry actually relate to the same individual.

    Heroes or Villains? 2010

  • This surety is called the confirmation bias, whereby we seek and find confirmatory evidence in support of already existing beliefs and ignore or reinterpret disconfirmatory evidence.

    Confirmation Bias and ID 2006

  • All I can say with 100% surety is that this dish is perfect with idlis and dosas.

    Coconut ‘sammanthi’ « Salt and Pepper. 2006

  • The UK has become increasingly reliant on imported food and its faith in the long-term surety of the global market is misplaced, according to research released by the Soil Association.

    FoodNavigator RSS 2008

  • One can imagine that it was the great Earl or Sir Philip Sidney that gave his imagination its moral and practical turn [Edmund Spencer's now], and one imagines him seeking from philosophical men, who distrust instinct because it disturbs contemplation, and from practical men who distrust everything they cannot use in the routine of immediate events, that impulse and method of creation that can only be learned with surety from the technical criticism of poets, and from the excitement of some movement in the artistic life. from → Quotations

    As Yeats Put it: « Unknowing 2010

  • Nor could even he himself be called a surety absolutely innocent: for although he was properly and personally innocent, he was imputatively and substitutively guilty; for

    A Dissertation on Divine Justice 1616-1683 1967

  • Better of a surety is a lowly peasant who serveth God, than a proud philosopher who watcheth the stars and neglecteth the knowledge of himself.

    II. Book I: Admonitions Profitable for the Spiritual Life. Of thinking humbly of Oneself 1909

  • The third cause is for the augmentation of our surety, that is to say for the glory that is purposed in us; in their solemnity our hope and surety be augmented and increased.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 6 1230-1298 1900

  • Becket submitted so far to the sentence of confiscation of goods and chattels, that he gave surety, which is a proof that he meant not at that time to question the authority of the king's courts.

    The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part A. From the Britons of Early Times to King John David Hume 1743

  • One of the people who provided the surety was a prime witness in the case.

    Times Now 2010

Comments

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  • This word reminds me of moiety.

    July 18, 2007