discount

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OF. desconter, descompter, to deduct, F. décompter to discount; pref. des- (L. dis-) + conter, compter. See Count, verb

1. To deduct from an account, debt, charge, and the like; to make an abatement of; as, merchants sometimes discount five or six per cent for prompt payment of bills.

2. To lend money upon, deducting the discount or allowance for interest; as, the banks discount notes and bills of exchange.

Discount only unexceptionable paper.— Robert Walsh

3. To take into consideration beforehand; to anticipate and form conclusions concerning (an event).

4. To leave out of account; to take no notice of. rare

Of the three opinions (I discount Brown's).— Sir William Hamilton

To lend, or make a practice of lending, money, abating the discount; as, the discount for sixty or ninety days.

Origin: Cf. F. décompte. See Discount, transitive verb

1. 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.

2. A deduction made for interest, in advancing money upon, or purchasing, a bill or note not due; payment in advance of interest upon money.

3. 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54