Definition of "perquisite" [per•qui•site]

• A payment or profit received in addition to a regular wage or salary, especially a benefit expected as one's due. See Synonyms at right. (noun)
• A tip; a gratuity. (noun)
• Something claimed as an exclusive right: "Politics was the perquisite of the upper class” ( Richard B. Sewall). (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.

• "Okay, so after I looked up "perquisite" I thought they'd misspelled prerequisite, but it turns out it means "freebie" or "bonus", I thought--gee, who uses the word "perquisite"?"
• "The Finance (No 2) Act, 2009, reintroduced stock incentives as 'perquisite' in the hands of employees."
• "In making the annual contract with the baker, his perquisite was the thirteenth loaf of every dozen furnished—hence the baker’s dozen.23 He was expected to know how to make “all kinds of preserved fruit, both liquid and dry, stewed fruits, creams, sweet cakes, marzipans, syrups, flavored waters, and distilled liqueurs.”"