usance

American  

[yoo-zuhns] / ˈju zəns /

noun

1. Commerce. a length of time, exclusive of days of grace and varying in different places, allowed by custom or usage for the payment of foreign bills of exchange.

2. Economics. the income of benefits of every kind derived from the ownership of wealth.

3. Archaic.

   1. use.

   2. custom; habit.

4. Obsolete. usury.

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usance British  

/ ˈjuːzəns /

noun

1. commerce the period of time permitted by commercial usage for the redemption of foreign bills of exchange

2. rare unearned income

3. an obsolete word for usage usury use

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Etymology

Origin of usance

1350–1400; Middle English usaunce < Old French usance, probably < Medieval Latin ūsantia, derivative of Latin ūsant- (stem of ūsāns ), present participle of ūsāre to use; see -ance

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

usance

He it was who prepared their bonds and contracts, and placed out their ill-gotten gains at exorbitant usance.

From The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 An Historical Romance by William Harrison Ainsworth

He knew that a debt to folly bears no grace, and was ready with his principal and usance.

From When Knighthood Was in Flower or, the Love Story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor the King's Sister, and Happening in the Reign of His August Majesty King Henry the Eighth by Charles Major

I heard that there followed hard on the jewels Two braces of stallions of striking resemblance, 20 Dappled and yellow; he granted him usance Of horses and treasures.

From Beowulf An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem by Lesslie Hall

Everything in it, tolerable or intolerable, will have but one use; and that use what our ancestors used to call usance or usury.

From Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

It means a certain time fixed by custom as between any two places, and the period covered by a usance will therefore depend on the places of drawing and payment.

From The Gentleman's Model Letter-writer A Complete Guide to Correspondence on All Subjects, with Commercial Forms by Anonymous

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