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Webster 1913 Edition
Amortize
A-mor′tize
,Verb.
T.
[OE.
. amortisen
, LL. amortisare
, admortizare
, F. amortir
to sell in mortmain, to extinguish; L. ad
+ mors
death. See Mortmain
]1.
To make as if dead; to destroy.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
3.
To clear off or extinguish, as a debt, usually by means of a sinking fund.
Webster 1828 Edition
Amortize
AMORT'IZE
,Verb.
T.
In English law, to alienate in mortmain, that is, to sell to a corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal, and their successors. This was considered as selling to dead hands. This cannot be done without the kings license. [See Mortmain.]
Definition 2024
amortize
amortize
English
Alternative forms
Verb
amortize (third-person singular simple present amortizes, present participle amortizing, simple past and past participle amortized)
- (transitive) To alienate (property) in mortmain.
- (transitive) To wipe out (a debt, liability etc.) gradually or in installments.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 318:
- extraordinary borrowing had been so extensive, Joly de Fleury reckoned, that even if it were amortized over the following decade, the state would still be running an annual deficit of over 50 million livres.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 318:
- (transitive, computer science) To even out the costs of running an algorithm over many iterations, so that high-cost iterations are much less frequent than low-cost iterations, which lowers the average running time per iteration.
Antonyms
Translations
decrease (debt) in installments