Definition of "down payment" []

• A partial payment made at the time of purchase, with the balance to be paid later. (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.

• "IN 1955, while other people were worried about the Cold War and were building air raid shelters, Mira and Norm were worried about the down payment on a small house they wanted to buy in Meyersville."
• "“The five-hundred-dollar down payment has been added to the full cost of the braces and divided into thirty-five-dollar-a-month payments,” she said, running the pencil along the sheet."
• "And Sweringen reportedly often demanded a down payment of 40-60% of the price of the aircraft."