indenture
pronunciation
How to pronounce indenture in British English:
UK [ɪnˈdentʃə(r)]
How to pronounce indenture in American English:
US [ɪnˈdɛntʃɚ]
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- Noun:
- a concave cut into a surface or edge (as in a coastline)
- formal agreement between the issuer of bonds and the bondholders as to terms of the debt
- a contract binding one party into the service of another for a specified term
- the space left between the margin and the start of an indented line
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- Verb:
- bind by or as if by indentures, as of an apprentice or servant
Word Origin
- indenture (n.)
- "contract for services," late 14c., from Anglo-French endenture, Old French endenteure "indentation," from endenter (see indent). Such contracts (especially between master craftsmen and apprentices) were written in full identical versions on a sheet of parchment, which was then cut apart in a zigzag, or "notched" line. Each party took one, and the genuineness of a document of indenture could be proved by juxtaposition with its counterpart. As a verb, 1650s, from the noun.
Example
- 1. To bind into the service of another by indenture .
- 2. People own bonds without reading the indenture .
- 3. Even though mary 's stories were full of contradictions , after the government promised to free her from indenture , she told them what they wanted to hear : that the fires were part of a " negro plot . "
- 4. In an effort to provide additional protection for bondholders , congress passed the trust indenture act of 1939 .
- 5. Indenture servants refer to some immigrants who has to work for a fixed term for their masters to repay the cross-atlantic fare and debts .