Dictionary

usurial en · ADJ

(not-comparable) Pertaining to or constituting usury.
- But their independence was lost centuries ago, and since that time commercial, and, I must add, usurial tendencies, with little aptitude for pastoral or agricultural pursuits, had been ever tending to remove them from the islands, and to accumulate them on coasts and in cities, often very far distant. 1872, William Gifford Palgrave, Essays on Eastern questions, page 157:
- In this way capital is deprived of its usurial power and is completely bound up with the performance of work. 2004, Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice, page 5:
- Nay, even if all was strictly honest at a fair — but all is not fair even at a fair — there is no small quantum of whitish mendacity — hem! — and not a little very clever humbugging and usurial screwing! 1846, Baynard Rust Hall, Something for Every Body: Gleaned in the Old Purchase, from Fields Often Reaped, page 194:
- The rich borrowed large sums at the low interest rates set for the poor and passed the money on to their old clientele at the customary usurial rates. 1967, Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, page 106: