SUBSIDY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Subsidy

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/sˈəbsɪdi/ Listen

noun

Subsidy n. (pl. subsidies)

Support; aid; cooperation; esp., extraordinary aid in money rendered to the sovereign or to a friendly power. "They advised the king to send speedy aids, and with much alacrity granted a great rate of subsidy." Note: Subsidies were taxes, not immediately on on property, but on persons in respect of their reputed estates, after the nominal rate of 4s. the pound for lands, and 2s. 8d. for goods.

Specifically: A sum of money paid by one sovereign or nation to another to purchase the cooperation or the neutrality of such sovereign or nation in war.

A grant from the government, from a municipal corporation, or the like, to a private person or company to assist the establishment or support of an enterprise deemed advantageous to the public; a subvention; as, a subsidy to the owners of a line of ocean steamships.

Synonyms: Tribute; grant. Subsidy, Tribute. A subsidy is voluntary; a tribute is exacted.

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Etymology of 'Subsidy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Subsidy" Quotes from Famous Books

... adherent, asserted that the fire was God's scourge for the wickedness of Copenhagen, the most impudent form of which, they believed, was the drama. Before conditions in the city were enough improved to warrant the resumption of his subsidy to the actors, the king died, on October 12, 1730. Under the reign of his pietistic successor, Christian VI (1730-1746), no dramatic performances of any sort were sanctioned; the theatre building was ...

— Comedies • Ludvig Holberg

... I have not told you that, on our Bill of Subsidy, the Lord Lucas made a fervent bold speech against our prodigality in giving, and the weak looseness of the government, the King being present; and the Lord Clare another to persuade the King that he ought not to be present. But all this had little encouragement, not ...

— Andrew Marvell • Augustine Birrell

... 1852) the theater also presented As You Like It in the Danish version by Sille Beyer. The performance of two Shakespearean plays within a year may rightly be called an ambitious undertaking for a small theatre without a cent of subsidy. Christiania Posten says: "It is a real kindness to the public to make it acquainted with these old masterpieces. One feels refreshed, as though coming out of a bath, after a plunge into their boundless, pure poetry. The marvellous thing about this comedy (As You Like It) is its wonderful, ...

— An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway • Martin Brown Ruud

... finally agreed upon. A new league, which Henry the Seventh of England was afterwards invited to join, was formed between the Emperor Maximilian, the Duke of Milan, the Pope, the King of Spain, and the Venetian Republic; and Venice and Milan promised Maximilian a subsidy of 16,000 ducats if he would cross the Alps with an army, and compel the Florentines to give up ...

— Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 • Julia Mary Cartwright

... Henry on the other hand, deserted by his ally and with a treasury ruined by the cost of the war, was ready at last to surrender his gains in it. In June 1546 a peace was concluded by which England engaged to surrender Boulogne on payment of a heavy ransom, and France to restore the annual subsidy which ...

— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green

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