repo

¹

[ree-poh]

noun

plural

repos 

1. a repurchase agreement.

repo

²

[ree-poh]

noun

plural

repos 

1. a repossessed property, especially a financed dwelling repossessed by the bank or other financing institution for delinquency of payment and offered for resale.

   We bought this trailer as a repo and have lived in it for 12 years, but now with kids we’re running out of room.

adjective

1. engaged in or relating to the business of repossessing or taking back high-priced merchandise, such as motor vehicles or machinery, from buyers who have failed to pay.

   I’m told that a repo company can just go to an address, find the car parked, and grab it.

verb (used with object)

1. to repossess or take back (merchandise) from buyers who have failed to pay.

   When their dry cleaning business really began to struggle, the bank repoed all their equipment.

repo

³

[ree-poh]

noun

Computers Informal.

plural

repos 

1. repository.

repo

/ ˈriːpəʊ /

noun

1. repurchase agreement

2. 1. repossession of property

   2. ( as modifier )

      a repo car

Word History and Origins

Origin of repo¹

First recorded in 1960–65; rep(urchase) + -o

Origin of repo²

By shortening of repossess; -o

Origin of repo³

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Your friend could easily end up owing $3,000-$4,000 even after a repo.

Read more on MarketWatch

Banks have made more use of the tool, called the standing repo facility, over the past month.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

That gives Wall Street firms an alternative to borrowing at higher interest rates in the market for Treasury repurchase agreements, known as repo—which in theory should help keep market rates from spiking out of alignment with the Fed’s goals.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Yet repo rates have spiked on some occasions this fall, and the tool is facing another test in the coming days, when Treasury Department auctions of tens of billions of dollars of new securities will settle.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Such fund flows have lifted repo rates in the past.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal