Meaning

2 senses

  1. (transitive)To impose a fine on; to fine.

  2. (transitive)To punish; to make an exaction.

    punish with an arbitrary penalty

Origin

From Anglo-Norman amercier, from Old French a (“at”) + merci (“mercy”), thus “at the mercy

From Anglo-Norman amercier, from Old French a (“at”) + merci (“mercy”), thus “at the mercy of”.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

amerces, amercing, amerced, amerced
Base formamerce · to amerce
3rd person singularamerces
Present participleamercing
Past simpleamerced
Past participleamerced

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyamerce
he, she, itamerces

Past simpleLesson

all personsamerced

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave amerced
he, she, ithas amerced

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill amerce

Synonyms

22 synonyms
penalizeB2correctB2punishB1castigatechastenchastisecome down onfix someone's wagonhave someone's guts for gartershave someone's headhave someone's hidegive it to someonegive someone what forgive what for

Word family

6 related words
RelatedmercyB2amerciableamercement
Derivedamerceableamercerunamerced

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
amendamendmentamenityAmericanA2amethyst
amerce — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto