amerce

American  

[uh-murs] / əˈmɜrs /

verb (used with object)

amerced, amercing

1. to punish by imposing a fine not fixed by statute.

2. to punish by inflicting any discretionary or arbitrary penalty.

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amerce British  

/ əˈmɜːs /

verb

1. law to punish by a fine

2. to punish with any arbitrary penalty

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Other Word Forms

• amercement
  noun
• amercer
  noun
• amerceable
  adjective
• unamerceable
  adjective
• unamerced
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of amerce

1250–1300; Middle English amercy < Anglo-French amerci ( er ) to fine, representing ( estre ) a merci (to be) at (someone's) mercy. See a- ⁵, mercy

Explanation

To amerce is to impose a fine on someone as punishment. During the Middle Ages, the King might amerce you if you trespassed on his land to retrieve a lost ball. The word amerce was more common in medieval times, although it's still used in a legal context, along with amercement. Today when a court amerces someone, it legally orders them to pay a fine after finding them guilty of wrongdoing. The word comes from the French a merci, or "at the mercy," referring to the fact that a person facing amercement is at the mercy of the court.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

amerce amerced amercing

Worst of all was Davie Graham, for having his hands upon the fines, he desired above all to amerce Gilbert Wilson, the tenant of Glen Vernock in the parish of Peninghame.

From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)

One came whose art men’s dread of are repressed: Mangled and writhing limb he lulled to rest, And stingless left the old Semitic curse; Him, too, for these blest gifts did Zeus amerce?

From Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811-1870) Masters of Medicine by Gordon, Henry Laing

I amerce myself, then, to you in that sum; and they will be sufficient sureties for the money.

From Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates by Cary, Henry

"Nay, but they will hold thee to ransom, and detain thee till it is brought: I heard them amerce thee at a thousand marks."

From The House of Walderne A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars by Crake, A. D. (Augustine David)

Searching those edges of the universe,   We leave the central fields a fallow part; To feed the eye more precious things amerce,       And starve the darkened heart.

From Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. by Ingelow, Jean

In 1801 and again in 1802 Cobbett had inveighed against a practice which thus amerced the editors of the London newspapers; but he might as well have preached to the winds.

From The History of the Post Office From Its Establishment Down to 1836 by Joyce, Herbert

Must the time Come thou shalt be amerced for sins unknown, Which were not thine nor mine?

From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 5 Poetry by Coleridge, Ernest Hartley

At the Kirk Session of St. Cuthbert’s, held on June 18, 1640, it was decided that every snuff-taker in church be amerced in “twenty shillings for everie falt.”

From England in the Days of Old by Andrews, William

We were heavily amerced by the sentence of this International Tribunal.

From Prime Ministers and Some Others A Book of Reminiscences by Russell, George William Erskine

If the proper number failed to appear the whole township was amerced, the entry on the rolls being frequently of the form “Villata de A. est in misericordia quia non venit plenarie.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 8 "Hudson River" to "Hurstmonceaux" by Various

One of their measures has been questioned as unwise and impolitic—that, namely, for amercing and confiscating the estates of certain of the loyalists, and for banishing the most obnoxious among them.

From The Life of Francis Marion by Simms, William Gilmore