Fine v.²

Also 3–7 fyne. [f. FINE sb.¹]

  † 1.  trans. To pay as a fine or composition. Obs.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 463.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., IV. vii. 72.

  † 2.  To impose (a tax) upon. Obs.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 307/1. Shortlie after a tax was fined upon the countrie of Norfolke.

  † 3.  intr. To pay a penalty, ransom, or composition. Const. with (a person). Obs.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 511.

1526.  Customs of Pale (Dillon, 1892), 85. Unto that theie have ffined with him for theire trespas.

1548.  Hall, Chron. (1809), 9. Item he hath compelled diuers of the saied lordes seruauntes and frendes by menace & extreme paimentes, to make great fines to theyr vtter vndoyng. And notwithstandyng his pardon to theim graunted yet he made them fine of newe.

1561.  Stow, Eng. Chron. (1565), 155 b. He was deteyned in prison, and coulde not be delyuered vntyll he had fyned with the kyng for 8000 poundes which he payed.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 761. He … put me in the stocks, saying, ‘Put in both your legs and your hands also; and except you fine with me, I will put a Collar about your Neck.’

  transf. and fig.  1580.  Sidney, Ps. lv. 18. He ransom’d me, he for my safetie fin’d In fight.

1634.  Shirley, Examples, IV. i. A challenge! Some young gentlemen that have Strong purses and faint souls do use to fine for ’t.

  b.  esp. to do this in order to escape the duties of an office. Const. for, esp. in to fine for (the office of) alderman, sheriff, etc. Also, † to fine off.

1557.  Order of Hospitalls, B vj. Except he be such a one as have borne th’ Office of an Alderman, or hath fined for the same.

1663.  Pepys, Diary, 1 Dec. The Judge would not suffer Mr. Crow, who hath fined for Alderman, to be called so, but only Mister.

1682.  Eng. Elect. Sheriffs, 41. Charlton … chose rather to Fine than to run the risk of being confirmed by the Commons to hold.

1706.  Estcourt, Fair Examp., V. i. You that have serv’d all the Offices in the Ward, and are able to Fine for Sheriff upon occasion.

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 116, 27 April, ¶ 3. Some have fined for Sheriffs.

1761–2.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxix. 179. Box apprehensive of the consequences which might attend so dubious an election, fined off.

  fig.  a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 82.

  † 4.  Of a magistrate: To fine with (a person). To accept a money payment as the price of connivance. Sc.

1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., 135. Gif any Lord of Regalitie sells any theif: or fines with him for theift done.

  5.  † a. To pay a fine on the renewal of tenure. (Cf. FINE sb.¹ 7.) Obs. b. trans. To fine down or off: to arrange for a reduction of (rent) upon payment of a fine. So, to fine down a lease.

1670.  Walton, Lives, I. 50. Our Tenant being very rich offered to fine at so low a rate as held not proportion with his advantages.

1705.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4183/3. The Tenant fining down a Part. Ibid. (1709), No. 4540/5. Fining off part of the Rent after the rate of ten Years Purchase.

1880.  [see FINING below].

  6.  To fine and recover: see RECOVER.

1831.  Scott, Jrnl. (1890), II. 401. I believe I have fined and recovered, and so may be thankful.

  7.  To pay a consideration for a specified privilege, or for appointment to an office.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. John xviii. 13. Beeyng a benefice sette to sale it [the high-priesthood] was fined for euery yere to the princes.

1776.  Adam Smith, W. N., I. x. (1869), I. 130. When any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter, such adulterine guilds, as they were called, were not always disfranchised upon that account, but obliged to fine annually to the king for permission to exercise their usurped privileges.

1813.  Scott, Rokeby, II. xxx.

1818.  Hallam, Mid. Ages, II. viii. II. 117. In England, women, and even men, simply as tenants in chief, and not as wards, fined to the crown for leave to marry whom they would.

1876.  S. Dowell, Taxes in Eng., I. iv. 33. In the fifth year of King Stephen, the Londoners fined in C marks of silver, that they might have sheriffs of their own choosing.

  8.  trans. To punish by a fine; to mulct. Hence simply, to punish (obs.). With the penalty or amount expressed as a second object, or introduced by in.

1559.  Fabyan, Chron. (1811), 615. Of the whiche prysoners some were after fyned, and some punysshed by longe imprysonment.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 115.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. i. § 11. He was condemned at Athens to banishment, and fined five talents.

1679.  Burnet, Hist. Ref., I. II. 166. He was turned out of his office of chancellor, and fined in 400 Pound.

1692.  Locke, Consid. Money, 12. To Fine Men one Third of their Estates, without any Crime or Offence committed, seems very hard.

1722.  Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. III. 153. They were fined for not taking off their hats before magistrates; for this was called Contempt of the Magistracy.

1794.  S. Williams, Vermont, 294. Others have been fined in large sums, and otherwise deprived of property.

1827.  Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xiii. 9. It was against law to fine a jury for giving a verdict contrary to the court’s direction.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., iv. § 5. 198. The King was strong enough to fine and imprison the Earls, to hang the chief of the Boston marauders, and to suppress the outlaws by rigorous commissions.

Mod.  The magistrate fined him forty shillings.

  Hence Fined ppl. a., in fined-down (sense 5); Fining vbl. sb., the action of the verb, an instance of this; also fining-down, in quot. attrib.

1599.  Massinger, etc., Old Law, IV. ii. Your smiles deserve a fining.

1660.  S. Fisher, Rusticks Alarm, Wks. (1679), 125. Fineing, banishing … hanging, and such like.

1880.  Daily Tel., 31 Dec., 3/5. Many of the tenants have paid large sums for fined-down leases. Ibid. The fining-down system, by which reductions of rent were bought out by lump sums.