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Levy vs Ransom - What's the difference?

levy | ransom |

As verbs the difference between levy and ransom

is that levy is to impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property while ransom is to deliver, especially in context of sin or relevant penalties.

As nouns the difference between levy and ransom

is that levy is the act of levying while ransom is money paid for the freeing of a hostage.

levy

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) leve'', from (etyl) ''levee'', from ''lever "to raise".

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property
  • to levy a tax
  • To raise or collect by assessment; to exact by authority.
  • * Shakespeare
  • If they do this my ransom, then, / Will soon be levied .
  • To draft someone into military service
  • To raise; to collect; said of troops, to form into an army by enrolment, conscription. etc.
  • * Fuller
  • Augustine inflamed Ethelbert, king of Kent, to levy his power, and to war against them.
  • To wage war
  • To raise, as a siege.
  • (Holland)
  • (legal) To erect, build, or set up; to make or construct; to raise or cast up.
  • to levy a mill, dike, ditch, a nuisance, etc.
    (Cowell)

    Noun

    (levies)
  • The act of levying.
  • * Thirlwall
  • A levy of all the men left under sixty.
  • The tax, property or people so levied.
  • * Macaulay
  • The Irish levies .

    Etymology 2

    Contraction of elevenpence.

    Noun

    (levies)
  • (US, obsolete, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) The Spanish real of one eighth of a dollar, valued at elevenpence when the dollar was rated at seven shillings and sixpence.
  • See also

    * levee * Levi ----

    ransom

    English

    (wikipedia ransom)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • Money paid for the freeing of a hostage.
  • They were held for two million dollars ransom .
    They were held to ransom .
  • * 1674 , , Paradise Lost , Book XII:
  • Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems.
  • * Sir J. Davies
  • His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty.
  • * 2010 , Caroline Alexander, The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad :
  • As rich as was the ransom Priam paid for Hektor, Hermes says, his remaining sons at Troy “'would give three times as much ransom / for you, who are alive, were Atreus' son Agamemnon / to recognize you.'”
  • The release of a captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration.
  • prisoners hopeless of ransom
    (Dryden)
  • (historical, legal, UK) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offence and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.
  • (Blackstone)

    Usage notes

    * (term) is much more common in the US, (to) in the UK.

    Derived terms

    * king's ransom

    Verb

  • To deliver, especially in context of sin or relevant penalties.
  • To pay a price to set someone free from captivity or punishment.
  • to ransom prisoners from an enemy
  • To exact a ransom for, or a payment on.
  • Such lands as he had rule of he ransomed them so grievously, and would tax the men two or three times in a year. — Berners.

    See also

    * bail

    References

    Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition 1997

    Anagrams

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