| 释义 |
usurious, a.|juːˈzjʊərɪəs|
[f. usury n. + -ous. Cf. next.]
1. Characterized by, of the nature of or involving, usury or excessive interest.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. 748 Vsurious contracts, voluptuous and vicious life. 1611Fenton Vsurie 21 If it be a gaine couenanted meerely in respect of loane, it is condemned as vsurious. 1678R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. ii. xii. 154 We have found out wayes,..by Bloody Usurious Contracts, to undoe one another. 1729Jacob Law Dict. s.v. Usury, A Bond..shall not be avoided by a corrupt usurious Agreement between others. 1784Cowper Task iii. 798 An usurious loan To be refunded duely, when his vote..shall have earn'd its worthy price. 1840Hood Kilmansegg, Marriage xxix, Fruits obtained before they were due At a discount most usurious. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. ix. vii. IV. 125 The Jews were especially to be compelled..to abandon all their usurious claims. 1869Spurgeon Treas. Dav. I. 209 To lend money even at the lowest interest to their fellow farmers [sc. Jews] in times of poverty would have been usurious.
b. Of interest, etc.: Charged by way of, acquired by virtue of, usury; exorbitant, excessive. Freq. with interest.
1611Cotgr., Vsuraire, vsurious; taken, or giuen for interest or vse. 1729Jacob Law Dict. s.v. Usury, It is not material, whether the Payment of the Principal and the usurious Interest, be secured by the same, or by different Conveyances. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. ix, The same usurious interest which is usually required from bankrupts. 1812Crabbe Tales xiv. 160 If thus he grasp'd at such usurious gains. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre iv, A usurious rate of interest—fifty or sixty per cent. 1880L. Oliphant Gilead x. 291 To lend money on mortgage..at a reasonable rate, instead of at the usurious percentage at present charged.
transf.1634Rainbow Labour (1635) 41 Pile up thine house with obligatory parchment,..farme out th' usurious time..and let each day redouble thine hundreds.
2. a. Practising usury; taking or charging excessive interest on loaned money; exacting in respect of interest. Also transf.
a1631Donne Love's Usury 2 For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now, I will allow, Usurious God of Love, twenty to thee. 1635Quarles Embl. iii. xv. 183 Plead not; Vsurious Nature will have all, As well the Int'rest, as the Principall. 1836J. Abbot Way to do Good iii. 96 The most hard-hearted usurious creditor. 1870Macduff Mem. Patmos x. 136 The usurious vendors dealing out a stinted penny⁓worth to the famishing. 1870H. Smart Race for Wife iv, Even a usurious solicitor is possessed of pride of some kind.
b. Characteristic of a usurer.
1727Bailey (vol. II), Usuriousness, usurious or extortioning Quality or Disposition. 1832Rolls of Parlt. Index 958 The usurious Conduct of Peter de Appelby. 1862J. Small Eng. Metr. Hom. p. vii, The knight, whose usurious feelings suddenly returned, proposed to the beggar to leave the grain.
†3. Liberal, abundant. Obs.—1
1780Burke Sp. at Bristol Wks. III. 376, I shall..pay ample atonement and usurious amends to..humanity for my unhappy lapse.
Hence uˈsuriously adv.; also uˈsuriousness (rare—0).
1670Sir T. Culpeper Necess. Abating Usury 38 Finding..nothing sweet but summes usuriously improved. 1727Usuriousness [see usurious a. 2 b]. 1798Coleridge in Cottle Early Recoll. (1837) I. 311 To make the present moment act fraudulently and usuriously towards the future time. 1808H. More Cœlebs xii. I. 152 She flatters egregiously and universally, on the principle of being paid back usuriously in the same coin. |