What does "discount" mean?
Discount: To lend money upon, deducting the discount or allowance for interest; as, the banks discount notes and bills of exchange. Discount only unexceptionable paper. Walsh.
Additional senses
- 2.To take into consideration beforehand; to anticipate and form conclusions concerning (an event).
- 3.To leave out of account; to take no notice of. [R.] Of the three opinions (I discount Brown's). Sir W. Hamilton.
- 4.To lend, or make a practice of lending, money, abating the discount; as, the discount for sixty or ninety days.
- 5.A counting off or deduction made from a gross sum on any account whatever; an allowance upon an account, debt, demand, price asked, and the like; something taken or deducted.
- 6.A deduction made for interest, in advancing money upon, or purchasing, a bill or note not due; payment in advance of interest upon money.
- 7.The rate of interest charged in discounting. At a discount, below par, or below the nominal value; hence, colloquially, out of favor; poorly esteemed; depreciated. -- Bank discount, a sum equal to the interest at a given rate on the principal (face) of a bill or note from the time of discounting until it become due. -- Discount broker, one who makes a business of discounting commercial paper; a bill broker. -- Discount day, a particular day of the week when a bank discounts bills. -- True discount, the interest which, added to a principal, will equal the face of a note when it becomes due. The principal yielding this interest is the present value of the note.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00