Definition of "usury" []

• The practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate. (noun)
• An excessive or illegally high rate of interest charged on borrowed money. (noun)
• Archaic Interest charged or paid on a loan. (noun)

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.

• "From that time forward the term usury was restricted to excessive interest, and this alone was prohibited."
• "In the Old Testament stood various texts condemning usury -- the term usury meaning any taking of interest: the law of Moses, while it allowed usury in dealing with strangers, forbade it in dealing with Jews."
• "Watching the news today and they just had Ron Insana talking on msnbc about a report in the Wall Street Journal about how banks are now raising fees on everything and, with some banks now charging up to 29\% interest rates, he used the term usury rates."