down payment

noun

Definition of down payment

: a part of the full price paid at the time of purchase or delivery with the balance to be paid later broadly : the first step in a process

Examples of down payment in a Sentence

She made a 10 percent down payment on the car. We put a down payment on the house.

Recent Examples on the Web

Democrats and Republicans have already shown their cards Trump wants a down payment on his border wall, and that appears to be as far as his game plan goes. — Tara Golshan, Vox, "This could be a really long government shutdown," 21 Dec. 2018 Last week, Cooper proposed a $1.5 billion recovery plan and asked for $750 million of that as a down payment, with a focus on housing, farmers and schools. — Emery P. Dalesio, The Seattle Times, "North Carolina lawmakers mull Hurricane Florence spending," 15 Oct. 2018 But after Wilson seemed to have secured an apartment by making an initial down payment, the rental agency reportedly recognized him and called the authorities. — Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica, "Cody Wilson reportedly trying to rent an apartment in Taiwan, per local media," 20 Sep. 2018 This goes toward emergency savings, retirement, home down payment fund, etc. — Samantha Leach, Glamour, "The Only Money Hacks You Need to Save Big in 2019," 14 Jan. 2019 The first step, of course, is pulling together a down payment. — Sara Rodrigues, House Beautiful, "Should Your Friends Crowdfund The Down Payment On Your Home? This Start-Up Thinks So," 18 Dec. 2018 For prospective homebuyer, down payments are often a source of stress—and confusion. — Jeff Andrews, Curbed, "Need money for a down payment on a house? There’s an app for that.," 17 Dec. 2018 Under the terms of the understanding, purchases and tariff reductions aren’t required until a deal is struck, but both sides believe early purchases would serve as a kind of down payment and give a boost to negotiations. — Bob Davis, WSJ, "U.S. Maintains Hard Line as Details Emerge in Trade Truce With China," 9 Dec. 2018 Buyers providing down payments of less than 20 percent of the purchase price may also need to pay for private mortgage insurance, which increases their monthly costs. — Jonnelle Marte, chicagotribune.com, "Black homeownership is stuck near 30-year lows," 6 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'down payment.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.