Definition of "interest" []

• A state of curiosity or concern about or attention to something: an interest in sports. (noun)
• Something, such as a quality, subject, or activity, that evokes this mental state: counts the theater among his interests. (noun)
• Regard for one's own benefit or advantage; self-interest. Often used in the plural: It is in your best interest to cooperate. She kept her own interests in mind. (noun)
• A right, claim, or legal share: an interest in the new company. (noun)
• Something in which such a right, claim, or share is held: has interests overseas. (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.

• "It has become the interest of the planter to make it for the _interest of the people_ to remain on his estate."
• "It might have been made two or three, or even six times larger, without diminishing from the interest of any one of its pages -- _indeed with an increased interest_ -- but the want of the pecuniary means, and other considerations, have induced me to present it as here seen."
• ""He jocularly observed, on one occasion, to a creditor, who peremptorily required payment of the interest due on a long-standing debt, 'My dear sir, you know it is not my _interest_ to pay the"