Definition of "hypothecation"

hypothecation

noun
countable and uncountable, plural hypothecations
1. The use of property, or an existing mortgage, as security for a loan, etc.
  Quotations
  After the deperdition of Indagator, having an appetency still further to pervstigate the frithy occident; being still an agamist, and not wishing to be any longer a pedaneous viator, nor to be solivagant, I brought about the emption of a yaud, partly by numismatic mutuation, and partly by a hypothecation of my fusee and argental horologe.
  1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 28
2. (British) A tax levied for a specific expenditure.
  Quotations
  It is, however, precisely here that the weakness of hypothecation lies, for governments are not likely readily to surrender control over the disposition of taxes they impose.
  1984, John R. Butler, Michael S. B. Vaile, Health and Health Services: An Introduction to Health Care in Britain‎, page 68
  So, strict hypothecation is only advisable when the tax pays entirely and only for that spending programme […]
  2006, Dominic Maxwell, “Towards a citizen's inheritance”, in The Citizen's Stake‎, page 49
  Either way, effectively the government is simply using the hypothecated tax as part of general revenue, and the hypothecation is a sham.
  2006, Julian Le Grand, Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy‎, page 155