usurer
Americannoun
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a person who lends money and charges interest, especially at an exorbitant or unlawful rate; moneylender.
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Obsolete. a person who lends money at interest.
noun
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a person who lends funds at an exorbitant rate of interest
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obsolete a moneylender
Etymology
Origin of usurer
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French < Medieval Latin ūsūrārius, equivalent to ūsūr ( ia ) usury + Latin -ārius -ary
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.
Himself a usurer, Shakespeare must have known how much he had invested in Shylock.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2010
But in 1884, a sickly boy was born in the Ghetto at Leghorn, Tuscany, to Flaminio Modigliani, son of a Roman usurer.
From Time Magazine Archive
He does, however, object to the second: "As a name of opprobrium or reprobation; spec. applied to a grasping or extortionate moneylender or usurer, or a trader who drives hard bargains or deals craftily."
From Time Magazine Archive
Nicholas' Uncle Ralph, a wily usurer and the evil genius of the piece, discovers his humanity too late, so that it ends by destroying him.
From Time Magazine Archive
“She is too good a revolutionist to sneak away from the battlefield,” snapped Ginsburg, the red-headed son of the usurer, without raising his eyes from the table.
From The White Terror and The Red A novel of revolutionary Russia by Cahan, 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.
