windbill

plural windbills

1. slangbusinessA signed agreement to act as guarantor for another's debt.

   But then culpa tenet suos auctores, and that would bring the case to this question, had the master authority from the owner to grant this windbill of lading?

   1903, Norman Macpherson, Sir John Rankine, The Scots Revised Reports: Court of Session, Third Series, page 981

   2 more examples

   He would have got a bank-credit, manoeuvred with windbills, dashed out upon a large scale, and soon have seen his crop and stock sequestered by the Sheriff'; but in those days a man could not ruin himself so easily.

   1822, Sir Walter Scott, The Pirate

   How frequently do we find persons establishing an extensive business on credit when they have no funds of their own; using windbills and sometimes forgeries; furnishing elegant houses with money which is not their own; living in luxury and splendour; dashing along in gigs and landaus; ...

   1854, Thomas Dick, LL.D., An Essay on the Sin and Evils of Covetousness