repo
/ˈriːpəʊ
/North American informal
noun (plural repos)
1 another term for repurchase agreement. in Germany, repos usually run for about one month...
- It is Wall Street that is behind the enormous expansion of commercial paper, repos, and other money market instruments.
- When the Federal Reserve temporarily supplies these funds to the market by buying securities from dealers with a commitment to resell, the transaction is called a repo, (repurchase agreement).
- A repo is a repurchase agreement which allows an investor to buy and sell the bonds back at convenience while a pledge is the use of government bonds as collateral to borrow money.
2A car or other item which has been repossessed: I’ve got a repo for you—'85 Maxima
verb (repo's, repo'ing, repo'd) [with object]
Repossess (a car or other item) when a buyer defaults on payments: she’s from the collection agency, come to repo the car...
- Operator: ‘It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'd.’
- His brother's wife was working, part time, as a waitress (before their only mode of transportation was repo'd.)
- Homes, furniture, entertainment units all over town were being repo'd every day; even life on the installment plan wasn't cutting it in the low-cost Mojave Desert.
Origin
1950s: abbreviation. The verb dates from the 1970s.