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

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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

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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

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 Henry Laing Gordon

"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 A. D. (Augustine David) Crake

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 S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

The words achieve, agree, amerce, amount, acquit, acquaint, avow, &c. show the same prefix, derived through the medium of Old French.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

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 Henry Cary

In 1557 he was elected ale-taster, and curiously enough he was amerced for not keeping his gutters clean, in company with Francis Harbage, Chief Bailiff, Adrian Quyney, Mr. Hall, and Mr. Clopton.

From Shakespeare's Family by C. C. (Charlotte Carmichael) Stopes

My long car-drives from Letterfrack and Clifden were directed mainly towards the spots mentioned in a former letter as of specially evil reputation for agrarian crime, and as being heavily amerced by the grand jury.

From Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. by Bernard H. Becker

But even in this court it was the law "that none be amerced but by his peers."—Mirror of Justices, 49.

From An Essay on the Trial by Jury by Lysander Spooner

That knowledge thine,Thou hadst not left thy son amerced of prayer,And given him tears, not succour.” 

From The Legends of Saint Patrick by Aubrey De Vere

"Come, master-surgeon, mend it for me; Though I would it were changed for the nails that amerced The dying thief upon Calvary."

From Collected Poems Volume Two by Alfred Noyes

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 William Gilmore Simms

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