mortpay
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From French mort (“dead”) + English pay.
Noun
[edit]mortpay (plural mortpays)
- (obsolete or historicl) The crime of taking pay for the service of dead soldiers, or for services not actually rendered by soldiers.
- 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
- the severe punishing of mortpays and keeping back soldiers' wages in captain
References
[edit]- “mortpay”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.