Search the Dictionary

To subject to fine or amercement; to mulct; to amerce. [Obs.]

The quahog.

A mercenary. [Obs.]

In a mercenary manner.

The quality or state of being mercenary; venality. Boyle.

Acting for reward; serving for pay; paid; hired; hireling; venal; as, mercenary soldiers.

Originally, a dealer in any kind of goods or wares; now restricted to a dealer in textile fabrics, as silks or woolens. [Eng.]

To treat (cotton fiber or fabrics) with a solution of caustic alkali. Such treatment causes the fiber to shrink in length and become stronger and more receptive of dyes. If the yarn or cloth is kept under tension during the process, it assumes a silky luster. -- Mer`cer*i*za"tion (#), n.

The business of a mercer.

The trade of mercers; the goods in which a mercer deals.

he amount of which is not fixed by law, but left to the discretion of the court; as, the amerced the criminal in the sum on the hundred dollars.

Liable to be amerced.

, or was originally, a fixed and certain sum prescribed by statue for an offense; but an amercement is arbitrary. Hence, the act or practice of affeering. [See Affeer.] Blackstone.

One who amerces.

de or traffic. The public becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of private men. Hume.

A very fast, unarmored, lightly armed vessel designed to capture or destroy merchant vessels of an enemy. Not being intended to fight, they may be improvised from fast passenger steamers.

To assess or reduce, as an arbitrary penalty or amercement, to a certain and reasonable sum. Amercements . . . were affeered by the judges. Blackstone.

Same as Amercement. Mozley & W.

cieties, or nations; friendly relations; good understanding; as, a treaty of amity and commerce; the amity of the Whigs and Tories. To live on terms of amity with vice. Cowper.

g the extension of the empire and the closer relation of its parts, esp. in matters of commerce and imperial defense. -- An`ti-im*pe"ri*al*ist, n. -- An`ti- im*pe`ri*al*is"tic (#), a.