Definition of "usurious" []

• Practicing usury. (adjective)
• Of or constituting usury: usurious interest rates. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "However, I realized early on that if there was no bailout and banks began to fail; unemployment started to rise into the high double digits; and credit companies jacked their interest rates up into what most of us would call usurious rates, that even I might not be able to pay my mortgage should I be laid off and not be able to find another job because no one was hiring."
• "Though contracts of this kind and under such a form cannot strictly be called usurious, yet, nevertheless, the vendors incur guilt, unless they are really doubtful whether the wares might be worth more or less at the time of payment."
• "The tears in her voice were the payment of what must be called a usurious speculation of love."