down payment
or down-payment
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noun
an initial amount paid at the time of purchase, in installment buying, time sales, etc.
any initial or partial payment, gift, favor, or recompense, as to reduce one's indebtedness or express one's obligation or gratitude: This gift is just a down payment for all the favors I owe you.
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Origin of down payment
First recorded in 1925–30
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use down payment in a sentence
How small a downpayment would they like buyers to qualify with?
British Dictionary definitions for down payment
down payment
noun
the deposit paid on an item purchased on hire-purchase, mortgage, etc
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for down payment
down payment
A payment in part made at the time of purchase of a good, with the promise to make full payment later.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.