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   Word of the Day for Friday October 12, 2001:

   mulct \MULKT\, noun:
   A fine or penalty.
   transitive verb:
   1.  To punish for an offense or misdemeanor by imposing a fine
   or demanding a forfeiture.
   2. To obtain by fraud or deception.
   3. To defraud; to swindle.

     Officials  repaid  such  loans  by mulcting the public in a
     variety of legal and extra-legal ways.
     --William H. McNeill, [1]A World History

     The  fact  that  major corporations don't have to pay their
     own  way,  and  instead  are  able to enlist legislators to
     mulct  common  citizens  -- and businesses with more modest
     Washington  connections  --  deforms  the  entire political
     system.
     --Doug  Bandow,  "The  Bipartisan Scandal of U.S. Corporate
     Welfare"

     [S]tate lawmakers and state courts... [have] ditched old
     common  law  rules  so  as to charge deep-pocket defendants
     with  harms that were once considered other people's fault,
     thus  making it thinkable to mulct automakers for the costs
     of drunk drivers' crashes
     --Walter Olson, "Firing Squad," [2]Reason, May 1999
     _________________________________________________________

   Mulct comes from Latin multa, "a fine."

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019511616X/lexico
   2. http://www.reason.com/


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