hypothecate
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to pledge to a creditor as security without delivering over; mortgage.
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to put in pledge by delivery, as stocks given as security for a loan.
verb (used with or without object)
verb
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(tr) law to pledge (personal property or a ship) as security for a debt without transferring possession or title
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to allocate the revenue raised by a tax for a specified purpose See also bottomry
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hypothecate1
1675–85; < Medieval Latin hypothēcātus, past participle of hypothēcāre. See hypothec, -ate 1
Origin of hypothecate2
First recorded in 1905–10; from Greek hypothḗk(ē) “suggestion, counsel” (from hypotithénai “to assume, suppose”; see hypo- ( def. ), thesis ( def. )) + -ate 1
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:
But previous attempts to "hypothecate" - or earmark - National Insurance contributions for specific public services have been abandoned.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2024
If they had no property real or personal to hypothecate, they could borrow on their personal credit only from usurers, who charged 20% and more interest.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was no course for Sandford, then, but to sell or hypothecate the shares of stock he held.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859 by Various
The trouble heretofore has been—I am quoting remarks of planters and steamboatmen—that the planters, although owning the land, were without cash capital; had to hypothecate both land and crop to carry on the business.
From Life on the Mississippi, Part 7. by Twain, Mark
Just hypothecate ten thousand of those Union Cordage shares and five thousand Western Trolley, and buy Consolidated on a twenty per cent margin.
From The Spenders A Tale of the Third Generation by Wilson, Harry Leon
He also called for a specific chunk of taxes raised to be "hypothecated" - earmarked - for the NHS, which he said was "in a state of profound crisis".
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2017
Others tout a hypothecated tax, perhaps giving national-insurance contributions to the NHS.
From Economist ● Nov. 19, 2015
"However, Mr. Eaton had failed to deliver $12,000,000 worth of the stocks sold because they were already hypothecated with banks for a $5,100,000 loan."
From Time Magazine Archive
To raise immediate cash, he had already hypothecated these two historic Rembrandts, smuggled out of Soviet Russia in a manner still unexplained, for the admittedly inadequate sum of 45,000 pounds sterling.
From Time Magazine Archive
Soon the two horsemen disappear behind a ridge of hills; and the hypothecated house resumes its wonted look of desolation.
From The Flag of Distress A Story of the South Sea by Reid, Mayne
The U. S. Department of Labor was considering the possibility of hypothecating its German-Austrian immigration quota for the next three years to admit up to 81,000 refugees into the country.
From Time Magazine Archive
He could see where, all told, he might raise seventy-five thousand dollars by hypothecating double the amount in shares; but this was ridiculously insufficient.
From The Financier, a novel by Dreiser, Theodore
He's rather desperate as a result, and has been trying to borrow money by hypothecating the inheritance due him on his twenty-fifth birthday.
From Cappy Ricks Retires by Kyne, Peter B. (Peter Bernard)
It was as though he had suddenly cashed in on all his available resources of happiness, hypothecating them for the immediate and attainable yet romantic present.
From Command by McFee, William
Mr. Lincoln went into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds.
From The Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 1: 1832-1843 by Lincoln, Abraham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
