Word of the Day

imprest \IM-prest\,
noun:
an advance of money; loan.

By law the whole of the seafaring population of Britain was liable to serve the King at sea, and if a man was given an "imprest" or advance payment by a King's agent — "taking the King's shilling" — he had to serve.
-- Dudley Pope, "Decision at Trafalgar," 1999

Off you go, see the foreign editor, get an imprest—don't imagine you can squander money on this trip, though!
-- Eileen Arnot Robertson, "Justice of the Heart," 1958

Imprest entered English in the late 1500s from the Anglo-Norman and Middle French prest, which described the action of lending.

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