leveraged

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adjective lev·er·aged \ ˈle-və-rijd , ˈlē- ; ˈlev-rijd , ˈlēv- \

Definition of leveraged

1 :having a high proportion of debt relative to equity

2 of the purchase of a company :made with borrowed money that is secured by the assets of the company bought

a leveraged buyout

Recent Examples of leveraged from the Web

The concern comes amid global warnings that an era of rock-bottom interest rates has left consumers and countries alike over-leveraged and more vulnerable than ever to hikes.

— josh wingrove, Bloomberg.com, "Trudeau Officials Fear the Impact of Speedy Poloz Hikes," 27 July 2017
Webcams and DVRs with default passwords have been leveraged to assault and disable large chunks of the internet.

— eric limer, Popular Mechanics, "Car Washes Can Be Hacked to Trap You Inside or Smash Up Your Car," 26 July 2017
Although such firms remain tied in the popular imagination to leveraged buyouts like the RJR Nabisco takeover, the industry long ago extended into a much wider array of businesses.

— michael j. de la merced, New York Times, "K.K.R. Lays Out a Line of Succession, a Rare Move in Private Equity," 17 July 2017
Other retailers to be struggling with high debt loads resulting from leveraged buyouts include J.Crew and Neiman Marcus.

— phil wahba, Fortune, "Gymboree Closing 350 Stores With Eye On Exiting Bankruptcy," 12 July 2017
But as someone who's found success in the private sector and leveraged her family name to build a retail brand, the life of a civil servant—one that includes going head-to-head with people who disagree with her—seems to pose too much of a challenge.

— maggie mallon, Glamour, "Ivanka Trump Says She Tries to 'Stay Out of Politics'—So Why Is She Advising the President?," 26 June 2017
All four of the companies singled out for review by the CBRC are highly leveraged.

— clay chandler, Fortune, "CEO Daily: Saturday, June 24, 2017," 24 June 2017
Taxpayers also pay 43 cents for state troopers (who don’t pay into or receive Social Security) and 46 cents for legislators (whose pension credits are leveraged to rise faster than other workers), and less for many other classes of employees.

— joseph n. distefano, Philly.com, "Pa. pension board hires Apollo, a fund with a history," 19 June 2017
Flannery, 55, got his start at GE Capital evaluating risk for leveraged buy-outs, then moved to its corporate restructuring group before going on to hold global roles in Latin America, Asia, and India.

— jena mcgregor, The Denver Post, "Meet John Flannery, GE’s next CEO," 18 June 2017

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

First Known Use of leveraged

1953

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