Word of the Day

Saturday, February 26, 2005

mulct

\MULKT\ , noun;

A fine or penalty.

transitive verb:

To punish for an offense or misdemeanor by imposing a fine or demanding a forfeiture.

To obtain by fraud or deception.

To defraud; to swindle.

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Quotes:

Officials repaid such loans by mulcting the public in a variety of legal and extra-legal ways.

-- William H. McNeill, A World History

The fact that major corporations don't have to pay their own way, and instead are able to enlist legislators to mulct common citizens -- and businesses with more modest Washington connections -- deforms the entire political system.

-- Doug Bandow, "The Bipartisan Scandal of U.S. Corporate Welfare",

State lawmakers and state courts . . . [have] ditched old common law rules so as to charge deep-pocket defendants with harms that were once considered other people's fault, thus making it thinkable to mulct automakers for the costs of drunk drivers' crashes

-- Walter Olson, "Firing Squad", Reason, May 1999

Origin:

Mulct comes from Latin multa, "a fine."