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Webster 1828 Edition


Installment

INSTALL'MENT

,
Noun.
The act of installing, or giving possession of an office with the usual ceremonies or solemnities.
1.
The seat in which one is placed. [Unusual.]
2.
In commerce, a part of a large sum of money paid or to be paid at a particular period. In constituting a capital stock by subscriptions of individuals, it is customary to afford facilities to subscribers by dividing the sum subscribed into installments, or portions payable at distinct periods. In large contracts also, it is not unusual to agree that the money shall be paid by installments.

Definition 2024


installment

installment

English

Alternative forms

Noun

installment (plural installments)

  1. The act of installing; installation.
    Take oaths from all kings and magistrates at their installment, to do impartial justice by law. Milton.
  2. (obsolete) The seat in which one is placed.
    The several chairs of order, look, you scour; . . . Each fair installment, coat, and several crest With loyal blazon, evermore be blest. Shakespeare.
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

A 1732 alteration of estallment, from Anglo-Norman estaler (fix payments), from Old French estal (fixed position), from Old High German stal (stall", "standing place)

The sense of "part of a whole produced in advance of the rest" is from 1823.

Noun

installment (plural installments)

  1. A portion of a debt, or sum of money, which is divided into portions that are made payable at different times. Payment by installment is payment by parts at different times, the amounts and times (often equal namely regular, e.g. mensual) being often definitely stipulated.
  2. a part of a broadcast or published serial.
  3. anything that is performed in parts, spread in time
Usage notes

For this sense in the UK, the OED permits only the spelling instalment. Commonwealth usage varies.

Synonyms
  • (portion of a debt):
  • (part of a broadcast or published serial): episode, part
Translations

References

  • installment in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
  • installment” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).