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amercement

   Also found in: Legal, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
a·merce  (-mûrs)
tr.v. a·merced, a·merc·ing, a·merc·es
1. Law To punish by a fine imposed arbitrarily at the discretion of the court.
2. To punish by imposing an arbitrary penalty.

[Middle English amercen, from Anglo-Norman amercier, from à merci, at the mercy of : à, to (from Latin ad; see ad-) + merci, mercy (from Latin mercs, wages).]

a·mercea·ble adj.
a·mercement n.

amercement, amerciament
1. punishment or penalty applied at the discretion of a court or other authority, as contrasted with a penalty predetermined by statute.
2. the imposing of such a penalty. — amercer, n.
See also: Punishment
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.amercement - money extracted as a penaltyamercement - money extracted as a penalty        
penalty - a payment required for not fulfilling a contract
library fine - fine imposed by a library on books that overdue when returned


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Two years before that the Inner Temple had been more restrictive still, recording in its parliament that "first, it is ordered that the cooks or any other officer in the kitchen shall not have any woman or woman-kind to come or resort into the kitchen or kitchen door for any cause, upon pain that the officer to whom such person shall resort to lose his office or place, or otherwise be punished by amercement.
In those actions of ravishment appearing in common law courts as a trespass, a conviction would result in the accused paying an amercement, usually the equivalent of the goods allegedly stolen from the husband in addition to damages.
The punishment for impermissibly intruding upon the forest was amercement (fine) at the next Eyre in addition to an annual fine based on the crops sown: For every acre illegally planted, the fine was a shilling for winter corn (either wheat or rye) and sixpence for spring corn (generally oats).
 
 
 
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