Forms: see prec.: also 6 suertishipe, -shyp, surtishipp, suretishippe, 7–9 suretiship. [f. prec. sb. + -SHIP.] The position or function of a surety (see prec. 7); responsibility or obligation undertaken by one person on behalf of another, as for payment of a debt, performance of some act, etc.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xi. 15. He that is suertye for a straunger, hurteth himself: but he that medleth not with suerteshippe, is sure.
1562. Act 5 Eliz., c. 21 § 5. To releas … the said suertieshippe of good Abearing.
1612. W. Parkes, Curtaine-Dr., To Rdr. (1876), 4. Beware of Suretiship.
1659. Gentl. Calling (1696), 103. To rook him at Play, entangle him in Suretiship.
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman, xi. (1841), I. 86. Suretiship for the debt.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. i. A poor man undone by shipwreck, by suretyship, by fire.
1870. Burton, Hist. Scot., liii. (1873), V. 6. The regent was not satisfied with this suretiship.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XIII. 161/2. Private suretyship is attended by many evils.
b. Said of Christ.
1642. T. Goodwin, Christ set forth, 148. He is not quit of this Surety-ship and engagement.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life, II. vli. § 6 Wks. 1718, I. 420. We have not only God’s Word, but also the Suretyship of our Saviour to depend on.
