mortpay

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noun

The crime of taking pay for the service of dead soldiers, or for services not actually rendered by soldiers.

OriginFrench mort →
Scrabble 14
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Meanings

nounmortpay (plural mortpays)

plural mortpays

  1. historicalobsoleteThe crime of taking pay for the service of dead soldiers, or for services not actually rendered by soldiers.

    the severe punishing of mortpays and keeping back soldiers' wages in captain

    1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC

Origin

  1. Frenchmort“dead”
  2. Englishmortpay

From French mort (“dead”) + English pay.

More words from French

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

mortpay. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mortpay

MLA

“mortpay.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mortpay. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mortpay,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mortpay.

Source: mortpay on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.