debenture

plural debentures

1. A certificate that certifies an amount of money owed to someone; a certificate of indebtedness.

   This was the West Lancashire Railway, an ambitious but feckless little concern which, in a life lasting a quarter of a century, never earned a dividend, failed to keep up its debenture payments (despite a dangerous attempt to do so by issuing more debentures) and ended up in the hands of a receiver.

   1960 March 28, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Preston—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 201

2. obsoleteA certificate of a loan made to the government; a government bond.

   Madame Corre, who made the important decisions after her plodding husband had spent hours on the ledger, sold the family debentures and put the money into Dutch decurities.

   1942, Elliot Paul, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Sickle Moon, published 2001, page 72

3. USbusinessA type of debt instrument secured only by the general credit or promise to pay of the issuer, not involving any physical assets or collateral, now commonly issued by large, well established corporations with adequate credit ratings.
4. UKbusinessA document granting lenders a charge over a borrower’s physical assets, giving them a means to collect a debt, as part of a secured loan.

   1 more example

   That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC