Word of the day: Mulct

Mulct

məlk(t)

NOUN

A fine or compulsory payment.

VERB

Extract money from (someone) by fine or taxation.l

EXAMPLE SENTENCES

"If you don't pay the tax when you renew your license, a bill will be sent to mulct the payment.

"The new mayor is going to mulct us next year over property taxes."

"I owe a mulct on my library books because I forgot to return them last week."

Word Origin:

Latin, late 15th century

Why this word?

If you've ever heard the word "milk" used in the sense of "milking someone" for a payment or a fine, it's likely the intended word was "mulct." Both "milk" and "mulct" appear in the Oxford English Dictionary with virtually identical definitions related to extracting payment, but "mulct" is about 100 years older.