investment
[in-vest-muh nt]
- the investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.
- a particular instance or mode of investing.
- a thing invested in, as a business, a quantity of shares of stock, etc.
- something that is invested; sum invested.
- the act or fact of investing or state of being invested, as with a garment.
- a devoting, using, or giving of time, talent, emotional energy, etc., as for a purpose or to achieve something: His investment in the project included more time than he cared to remember.
- Biology. any covering, coating, outer layer, or integument, as of an animal or vegetable.
- the act of investing with a quality, attribute, etc.
- investiture with an office, dignity, or right.
- a siege or blockade; the surrounding of a place with military forces or works, as in besieging.
- Also called investment compound. Metallurgy. a refractory material applied in a plastic state to a pattern to make a mold.
- Archaic. a garment or vestment.
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Origin of investment
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for investment
Contemporary Examples
Cuba, already corrupt, will have to avoid becoming even more so when American investment pours in.
We knew it would be an expensive endeavor, and we still chose to make the investment.
Which is bad, because we all have an investment in making college affordable and accessible to everyone.
Healey may not have won on Tuesday, but the return on his investment was a national standout.
And the insane cost of keeping so many nonviolent people locked up is an investment in failure.
Historical Examples
I am, in other words, an investment from which they expect large returns.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
As an investment, these possessions were extremely unremunerative.
The Market-PlaceHarold Frederic
Mark Twain made his first investment in Redding that spring.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, CompleteAlbert Bigelow Paine
Perhaps,” she rejoined, laughing, “but I should not care to make such an investment.
The Crimson TideRobert W. Chambers
Please say to him that a client wishes to speak to him regarding an investment.
The Crimson TideRobert W. Chambers
investment
- the act of investing money
- the amount invested
- an enterprise, asset, etc, in which money is or can be invested
- the act of investing effort, resources, etc
- the amount invested
- economics the amount by which the stock of capital (plant, machinery, materials, etc) in an enterprise or economy changes
- biology the outer layer or covering of an organ, part, or organism
- a less common word for investiture (def. 1)
- the act of investing or state of being invested, as with an official robe, a specific quality, etc
- rare the act of besieging with military forces, works, etc
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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
Word Origin and History for investment
n.
1590s, "act of putting on vestments" (a sense now found in investiture); later "act of being invested with an office, right, endowment, etc." (1640s); and "surrounding and besieging of a military target" (1811); see invest + -ment. Commercial sense is from 1610s, originally of the finances of the East India Company; general use is from 1740 in the sense of "conversion of money to property in hopes of profit," and by 1837 in the sense "amount of money so invested; property viewed as a vehicle for profit." For evolution of commercial senses, see invest.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
investment
The purchase of property with the expectation that its value will increase over time.
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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.