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garnishee

American  
[gahr-ni-shee] / ˌgɑr nɪˈʃi /

verb (used with object)

garnisheed, garnisheeing
  1. to attach (money or property) by garnishment.

  2. to serve (a person) with a garnishment.


noun

  1. a person served with a garnishment.

garnishee British  
/ ˌɡɑːnɪˈʃiː /

noun

  1. a person upon whom a garnishment has been served

"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

verb

  1. to attach (a debt or other property) by garnishment

  2. to serve (a person) with a garnishment

"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

Etymology

Origin of garnishee

First recorded in 1620–30; garnish + -ee


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The agency can't put people in jail or garnishee wages to get the money.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2014

Today, a creditor generally cannot imprison his debtor, nor can he garnishee his salary without a court order.

From Time Magazine Archive

The burly engineer hunted down the two departments--accounting and human resources--that were about to garnishee his wages to pay overdue taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

From Time Magazine Archive

Attachment.—A judgment creditor may “attach” debts due by third parties to his debtor by what are known as garnishee proceedings.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 1 "Evangelical Church Conference" to "Fairbairn, Sir William" by Various

You are correct in saying, in your answer as garnishee, that I have been an active and decided friend of Peace.

From Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals In Two Volumes, Volume II by Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Breese) Morse

They included 847 whose credit reports had been dinged by the agency and 1,808 whose paychecks had been garnisheed or whose tax refunds had been withheld.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2019

If employees continually refuse to pay, their wages can be garnisheed.

From Washington Post ● May 7, 2015

Ms. Cordeiro has already had two tax refunds seized, and other debtors have had their paychecks or Social Security payments garnisheed.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2012

About 98,000 borrowers are having their wages garnisheed, the agency said.

From BusinessWeek ● Dec. 28, 2010

He had been earning $50 a week in a shop where he had worked for eighteen years and he would not endure having his wages garnisheed for debt.

From Broken Homes A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment by Joanna C. Colcord

If ConServe reaches a borrower who refuses to cooperate, the company considers garnisheeing wages or withholding a government check, which requires approval from the Department of Education.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2012

Of that, $1.65 billion came from seizures of government checks like tax returns and $1.01 billion was collected by garnisheeing borrowers’ wages.

From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2012

In others it has raised child-support collections by upgrading computer systems and improving procedures for garnisheeing the wages of absent fathers.

From Time Magazine Archive

"I don't know the process," said Ralph, "never having had any experience in that class of business, but I should say garnisheeing in this case would simply be sending good money after bad."

From Ralph in the Switch Tower by Allen Chapman

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