bounty
pronunciation
How to pronounce bounty in British English:
UK [ˈbaʊnti]
How to pronounce bounty in American English:
US [ˈbaʊnti]
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- Noun:
- payment or reward (especially from a government) for acts such as catching criminals or killing predatory animals or enlisting in the military
- the property of copious abundance
- generosity evidenced by a willingness to give freely
Word Origin
- bounty
- bounty: see beauty
- bounty (n.)
- mid-13c., "generosity," from Old French bonte "goodness" (12c., Modern French bonté), from Latin bonitatem (nominative bonitas) "goodness," from bonus "good" (see bene-). Sense of "gift bestowed by a sovereign or the state" led to extended senses of "gratuity to a military recruit" (1702) and "reward for killing or taking a criminal or enemy" (1764).I do ... promise, that there shall be paid ... the following several and respective premiums and Bounties for the prisoners and Scalps of the Enemy Indians that shall be taken or killed .... ["Papers of the Governor of Pennsylvania," 1764]
Example
- 1. Economists and bounty hunters would appear to have little in common .
- 2. His whereabouts were a mystery for the next nine years , despite the bounty on his head .
- 3. There , booth and brennan come up against a second bounty hunter after braverman , janet leblanc .
- 4. The founders have also enlisted leading security experts to probe and test their system , and plan to offer a bug bounty , paying for discovered flaws .
- 5. Utilizing her native intelligence and drawing on her boundless courage , she eluded bounty hunters seeking a reward for her capture , which eventually went as high as forty thousand dollars .