pension Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a regular payment to a person that is intended to allow them to subsist without working
  2. verb grant a pension to
    pension off.

WordNet

Pen"sion noun
Etymology
F., fr. L. pensio a paying, payment, fr. pendere, pensum, to weight, to pay; akin to pendre to hang. See Pendant, and cf. Spend.
Definitions
  1. A payment; a tribute; something paid or given. Obs.
    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. Eng. Mozley & W.
  4. F., pronounced . A boarding house or boarding school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.
Pen"sion transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Pensioned ; present participle & verbal noun Pensioning
Definitions
  1. To grant a pension to; to pay a regular stipend to; in consideration of service already performed; -- sometimes followed by off; as, to pension off a servant.
    One knighted Blackmore, and one pensioned Quarles. Pope.

Webster 1913