Word of the Day

: November 21, 2007

mulct

verb MULKT

What It Means

1 : to punish by a fine

2 a : to defraud especially of money : swindle

b : to obtain by fraud, duress, or theft

mulct in Context

Francis was finally barred from the securities industry when it was discovered he'd been mulcting investors for years.

Did You Know?

A fine assessed as a penalty for an infraction is generally considered justifiable. Fraud, on the other hand, is wrong -- it's just the sort of thing that deserves a fine. So in "mulct" we have a unique word, one that means both "to fine" and "to defraud." The "fine" sense came first. "Mulct" was borrowed from the Latin word for a fine, which is "multa" or "mulcta." The "fine" sense is still in use, mostly in legal contexts ("the court mulcted the defendant for punitive damages"), but these days "mulct" is more often used for an illegal act. It has been speculated that the use may have come about by association with the verb "milk," in its sense "to exploit, to coerce profit from" (as in "she was milked by the lawyers for everything she had"), but that speculation has never been proven.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.