Definition of "usury"

usury

/ˈjuːʒəɹi/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural usuries
1. (countable) An exorbitant rate of interest, in excess of any legal rates or at least immorally.
2. (uncountable) The practice of lending money at such rates.
3. (uncountable, archaic or historical) The practice of lending money at interest.
  Quotations
  The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest.
  4th century BCE, Aristotle, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Politics, Book I, Part X
4. (uncountable, obsolete) Profit.
  Quotations
  Then will we march to all thoſe Indian Mines,My witleſſe brother to the Chriſtians loſt:And ranſome them with fame and vſurie.
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene v