investment
(ɪnˈvɛstmənt)
[f. invest v. + -ment. Cf. the earlier vestment.]
1. The act of putting clothes or vestments on; concr. clothing; robes, vestments. Also fig.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. i. 45 You, Lord Arch-bishop..Whose white Inuestments figure Innocence. 1602 ― Ham. i. iii. 128 His vowes..they are Broakers, Not of the eye, which their Inuestments show: But meere implorators of vnholy Sutes. 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. (1798) 37, I now present myself..clothed in the robes of their hereditary priesthood..But if, unworthy of this hallowed investment and interior ministry, the door of the sanctuary is closed upon me; I shall [etc.]. 1854 M. J. Routh in Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men (1888) I. 101 No persons would spend their time in a leisurely disposal of the investments, after having taken them from the body. |
2. transf. a. An outer covering of any kind; an envelope; a coating.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xiv. 140 Crocodiles, are without any haire, and have no covering part or hairy investment at all. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 298 Some assert that these are only investments of other crystallized stones that have since decayed. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 27 Their capsules afford a striking instance of an investment acquired simply by a condensation of the surrounding cellular structure. 1874 Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. iv. 67 The hard and horny dermal investment of insects. |
b. Refractory material which can be used to embed or surround an object and then is allowed to harden, so that soldering can be carried out (in Dentistry) or a mould made from it; freq. attrib., as investment material; investment casting, a technique for making small, accurate castings from alloys having high melting points, the mould being made by investing a pattern of wax or similar material that can be removed from the investment by melting it.
| 1892 C. Hunter Man. Dental Laboratory viii. 115 If the new tooth must be soldered, an hour-and-a-half, from the time the case is ready to be put in the investment, is not too much for its safe accomplishment. 1942 Iron Age 9 July 39 Production of castings..by a modern modification of the lost-wax process is described herein. This method utilizes a refractory investment which makes possible the casting of stainless and other alloy steels. 1946 Investment casting [see invest v. 2 c]. 1947 J. C. Rich Materials & Methods Sculpture vi. 140 For the solid casting of small bronze statuettes, the Greeks employed a simple technique. The work was modeled in wax and incased in a containing negative mold composed of sand and earth-clay. When this investment material was dry, an opening was made and the entire mass was heated until the wax ran off. 1956 J. N. Anderson Appl. Dental Materials xvii. 191 A wax pattern may be expanded directly by using warm water to mix the investment. 1963 C. R. Cowell et al. Inlays, Crowns & Bridges ii. 3 Modern inlay waxes and investment techniques make dimensional control possible. 1964 S. Crawford Basic Engin. Processes xii. 255 Precision casting, investment casting, and the lost-wax process, are various names given to the process by which small intricate castings can be produced to a high grade of dimensional accuracy and surface finish in materials which prove difficult or impossible to cast and subsequently machine by the more traditional methods... The principle of the process..has been in use in the jewellery and dental trades for many years. |
3. The action of investing or fact of being invested with an office, right, or attribute; endowment; = investiture 2, 3.
| 1649 Milton Eikon. xviii. Wks. (1851) 470 The investment of that lustre, Majesty, and honour, which for the public good,..redounds from a whole Nation into one person. 1654 tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 112 The Bassawes..would have..prevented the said Kings investment, an Inauguration unto the Kingdom of Hungary. 1885 Clodd Myths & Dr. i. iv. 61 The investment of the powers of nature with personal life and consciousness. |
4. Milit. The surrounding or hemming in of a town or fort by a hostile force so as to cut off all communication with the outside; beleaguerment; blockade. Also attrib.
| 1811 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) VII. 214 You will likewise have heard of the surrender of Oliven{cced}a and of the subsequent investment of Badajoz. 1868 Kinglake Crimea (1877) IV. x. 246 To draw the investment closer. 1884 Mil. Engineering (ed. 3) I. ii. 7 Secrecy and speed are secured, in the investment of an inland fortress, by the use of an advanced force of cavalry and horse artillery, which conceals the march of the main body. Ibid. 17 Some distance in rear of the investment line. |
5. Comm. The investing of money or capital. (Not in J. or T.) a. In early use in the East India trade, for the employment of money in the purchase of Indian goods.
| 1615 E. Holmden Let. to Governor E.I. Co. 7 Mar. (MS., Orig. Corr. 262), For further aduyse in particulerising of the sayls of the Companies goods and Investment of that and of ther monies. 1618 Sir T. Roe Let. to E.I.C. 14 Feb. (Hakl. Soc. 473), Not to defer investmentes till our shippes arriuall and the Indicoes swept away. 1675 Let. in Fryer Acc. E. India & P. (1698) 86 The Factors are sent to over⁓see the Weavers, buying up the Cotton-yarn to employ them all the Rains, when they set on foot their Investments. 1698 C. Davenant Disc. Publ. Revenues ii. 345 (E.I. Trade) If the prime Cost of the respective Investments or Parcels of Goods, were truly valued and stated by judicious and disinterested Persons, a Judgment might from thence be made somewhat nearer the Truth. 1783 Burke 9th Rep. Aff. India Wks. XI. 51 A certain portion of the revenues of Bengall has been..set apart to be employed in the purchase of goods for exportation to England, and this is called the Investment. Ibid. 53 The practice of an Investment from the Revenue began in the year 1776. Ibid. 54. Ibid. 57 When an account is taken of the intercourse (for it is not commerce), which is carried on between Bengal and England, the pernicious effects of the system of Investment from Revenue will appear in the strongest point of view. 1791 Robertson India iv. 151 To these staples, the natives of all the different regions in the eastern parts of Asia brought the commodities which were the growth of their several countries..and with them the ships from Tyre and from Egypt completed their investments. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 521 To sell and buy various articles, including pepper, which it was his business to provide for the Company's investments. |
b. gen. The conversion of money or circulating capital into some species of property from which an income or profit is expected to be derived in the ordinary course of trade or business.
Distinguished from speculation, in which the object is the chance of reaping a rapid advantage by a sudden rise in the market price of something which is bought merely in order to be held till it can be thus advantageously sold again.
| 1740 Peere Williams' Rep. I. (1792) 140 The plaintiff insisted on the profits produced in trade, and the several investments that had been made therewith. a 1804 A. Hamilton (Webster 1828), Before the investment could be made, a change of the market might render it ineligible. 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation (1852) 398 Any feeling of insecurity is a most formidable obstacle to the investment of capital. 1858 J. B. Norton Topics 203 An inducement for the investment of capital in the land. 1868 Rogers Pol. Econ. vi. (1876) 54 When the profitable investment of saving is discouraged or diminished, capital is less eagerly accumulated. |
c. An amount of money invested in some species of property; also, A form of property viewed as a vehicle in which money may be invested.
| 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 45 A friend..made some inquiries about investments in the region where his host lived..‘I do not put myself in the way of hearing about profitable investments’. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. (1889) II. 484 So popular was the new investment, that on the day on which the books were opened three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed. 1878 Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. ii. 23 If they put their wealth into banks and other good investments, they do great service in increasing the capital of the nation. 1888 F. Hume Mad. Midas i. i, Mrs. Villiers sold out all the investments which she had. |
| fig. 1873 Burton Hist. Scot. VI. 63 He discovered a good investment for his skill, sagacity, and endurance in Poland. 1873 Hamerton Intell. Life i. v. (1876) 28 Sacrifice to bodily well-being, the best of all possible investments. |
d. attrib. and Comb. Also investment currency, the currency resulting from the sale of foreign securities or used for their purchase when such transactions are controlled and channelled through a market separate from the market in foreign exchange; investment trust, a trust (trust n. 7 a) whose business is the investment of money; also attrib.
| 1883 Daily News 8 Oct. 2/3 Consols and various other high class investment stocks are firm. 1885 List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 213 American Investment Trust Co. 1895 Daily News 21 Mar. 5/3 Regret is expressed that the special investment business of some of these savings banks is practically suspended. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 13 July 6/1 A lot of investment money seeking employment. 1924 B. D. Nash Investment Banking in Eng. 3 The function of investment banking is to gather together the savings and surplus capital of individuals and companies and to turn this accumulation into the hands of others for use in the construction of fixed plants. 1924 L. M. Speaker Investment Trust 3 The investment trust in its characteristic form is an institution mainly of British origin. It is essentially a corporation, the business of which consists chiefly of judicious investment of its capital. 1929 Observer 17 Nov. 2/3 Among the many high-class securities which have had to be sold to meet the demand for money caused by the depressed conditions have been the junior stocks of the large investment trust companies. 1933 B. Ellinger This Money Business iv. 33 There are a number of firms and brokers connected with trust and investment companies. 1935 Economist 5 Jan. 23/1 The extent of the..movement may be appreciated from the following table of representative values and yields based on the Actuaries' Investment Index. 1951 R. W. Jones Thomson's Dict. Banking (ed. 10) 346/1 Investment Ledger. A separate account is opened in this ledger for each different investment. 1961 ‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) iii. 21 Robichaux had..surprised his friends and relations by becoming an astute and competent investment banker. 1963 Listener 31 Jan. 191/1 Bankers have looked with jaundiced or favourable eye on the investment bank. 1965 D. Greenwald et al. McGraw-Hill Dict. Mod. Econ. 274 The first real investment trust was the Foreign and Colonial Trust, which was established in London in 1868. Its purpose was to give small investors the same advantage, diversification, that large capitalists had. 1967 Spectator 21 July 85/3 Investment trusts are closed portfolios. Selling or buying shares in such trusts neither increases nor decreases the size of the portfolio. 1969 Times 30 Apr. 30/6 Investment companies qualify, so do unit trusts, and a company is eligible for relief if the interest would have been eligible when payable by an individual. 1969 Times 5 May (Suppl.) p. vi/5 Now the insurance companies have joined the fight for this part of the investment dollar. 1971 Mod. Law Rev. XXXI. vi. 699 The second chapter..contains a detailed practical account of the work of American investment bankers. 1972 D. Lees Zodiac 117 He's among the top six investment consultants in the world today. 1973 Country Life 12 July 120/3 It is necessary to buy what is known as investment currency, which is a pool of funds created by the sale of British investments abroad. 1973 Times 17 Dec. 14/3 Investment funds..went too much into property or overseas, too little into productive industry. |
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Add: [5.] [d.] investment bond, a single-premium, unit-linked, life insurance policy for long-term investment.
| 1908 F. Lownhaupt Investment Bonds i. 2 The *investment bond is, in itself, the representation of but a portion of the debt. 1985 Daily Tel. 23 Mar. 23/2 This year the Budget will mean a special jump in the value of investment bonds, irrespective of the value of the investments that they hold. |