Dictionary entry

Pension

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pen″sion (?), n. [F., fr. L. pensio a paying, payment, fr. pendere, pensum, to weight, to pay; akin to pend�re to hang. See Pendant, and cf. Spend.] 1. A payment; a tribute; something paid or given.

The stomach's pension, and the time's expense. Sylvester.

2. A stated allowance to a person in consideration of past services; payment made to one retired from service, on account of age, disability, or other cause; especially, a regular stipend paid by a government to retired public officers, disabled soldiers, the families of soldiers killed in service, or to meritorious authors, or the like.

To all that kept the city pensions and wages. 1 Esd. iv. 56.

3. A certain sum of money paid to a clergyman in lieu of tithes. Mozley & W.

4. [F., pronounced �.] A boarding house or boarding school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.