Make Your Point > Archived Issues > MULCT
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pronounce
MULCT:
Say it "MULKT."
(It rhymes with "bulked.")
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
To trick. To cheat. To fleece. To con. To thwart. To swindle. To bamboozle. To b__k.
English offers us those verbs and so many others for ch_c_nery: that is, for the use of sneaky tricks to deceive people.
Today, we're checking out one more: to mulct.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "mulct" has been around in English for hundreds of years. We took it from a Latin word meaning "a fine" or "a penalty." And for a long time, that's what "mulct" meant in English: "a fine, a tax, or a penalty."
But the meaning has changed over time, and these days, we use "mulct" as a verb meaning "to rob." (If you feel you're being robbed as you pay your taxes or your fines, you'll see why it was a natural change in meaning from "tax" to "rob"!)
To put that another way, to mulct someone, or to mulct someone of something, means to take that thing away from them, as if it were an official tax or a penalty, but you're just plain stealing it away from them.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech: It's usually a verb, the transitive kind: "they'll mulct him," "they'll mulct him of that right."
Other forms: Today we just stick with the verb forms: "mulct," "mulcts," "mulcted," and "mulcting."
how to use it:
"Mulct" is a rare word with an old-fashioned tone.
And with its harsh, clipped sound, it's perfect for describing how fierce, cruel, sudden, and infuriating it is to have something of yours grabbed away from you, as if the person grabbing it away is acting as if they have official authority to do it.
So, in cases like those, talk about people mulcting other people, often of things, or for certain amounts of money. Or, talk about money or other things being mulcted from people.
Things that get mulcted are often physical, like money or property: "He was mulcted of most of his paycheck;" "He was mulcted for $700."
But they can also be abstract, like rights, dignity, privileges, or reputations: "Their accusations mulcted him of his good name."
examples:
"The tax on advertisements checks information, fines poverty, mulcts charity, depresses literature, and impedes every species of mental activity, to realize £150,000 per annum."
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1950
"To be fair, the Waukee deal isn't the most lopsided among data-center subsidies. That prize goes to, well, Apple, which mulcted North Carolina for $321 million in incentives for 50 jobs in 2009."
— Michael Hiltzik, The Chicago Tribune, 25 August 2017
has this page helped you understand "mulct"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "mulct" without saying "fleece" or "swindle."
try it out:
In a 2013 opinion piece for Forbes, Doug Bandow wrote this:
A miracle happened in Washington last week. Legislators failed in their attempt to mulct the public.
Congress is debating the so-called Federal Agricultural Reform and Risk Management Act. More commonly known as the Farm Bill, it is a looting expedition, roughly 80 percent general welfare (Food Stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and 20 percent farm welfare (agricultural price supports).
Talk about how strongly you agree or disagree with Bandow's premise here. That is, do you think the government mulcts the public when it spends lots of money to help farmers and the poor? Why or why not?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
This month, our game is called "Recollections."
In each issue, I'll share a quote from some work--it might be a song, a poem, or a book--and you'll come up with that work's title. You can assemble the title, highlighted in the vertical blue line below, by recalling words to fit into the puzzle. Scrap paper might help!
From the previous issue:
"Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even."
Those words appear in the novel The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. (Oops, I forgot to include the word "The" in the puzzle. Sorry!)
If you'd like to review any of the words from the puzzle, give them a click: gainsay, cacophony, eccentricity, Damoclean, labyrinthine, nanosecond, haggard, idyllic, bandy, gait, faceless, yoke, objectify.
Try this one today:
"'Grown-ups don't pay attention to me.'
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
'I know what you mean,' said the little old man."
In what work does the quote above appear?
1) adjective: "tastes or seems okay (or even good) to the person who's eating or experiencing it"
2) noun: "an attitude of overdone manliness"
3) adjective: "too good to be joked about, as if holy"
4) adjective: "very quiet, unwilling to get involved in the conversation"
5) noun: "a small feeling of doubt or guilt"
6) noun: "a person who is very good at telling interesting stories in social situations"
7) adjective: "totally miserable or absolutely hopeless"
8) verb: "to put in danger, not necessarily by glaring at with cruel pomposity like Alex Trebek glares after a missed trivia question about Canada"
9) verb: "to complain in a fussy, annoying way"
10) noun: "something said or done indirectly (rather than straight to the point)"
11) noun: "the state of being the best, the highest, or the most important"
12) noun: "a powerful desire to travel or roam around"
13) noun: "a harsh, sudden, intense outpouring of something, as if in chunks of ice"
14) noun: "a power to attract or repulse people, as if chemically"
15) noun: "the highest point, or the very best part"
review this word:
A. SHINE.
B. HARVEST.
C. CONTRIBUTE.
2. In The Privatization of Roads and Highways, Walter Block wrote that "the state has no money of its own, over and above that mulcted _____."
A. in investments
B. from the citizenry
C. toward defense and education
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
To trick. To cheat. To fleece. To con. To thwart. To swindle. To bamboozle. To b__k.
The word "mulct" has been around in English for hundreds of years. We took it from a Latin word meaning "a fine" or "a penalty." And for a long time, that's what "mulct" meant in English: "a fine, a tax, or a penalty."
Part of speech: It's usually a verb, the transitive kind: "they'll mulct him," "they'll mulct him of that right."
"Mulct" is a rare word with an old-fashioned tone.
"The tax on advertisements checks information, fines poverty, mulcts charity, depresses literature, and impedes every species of mental activity, to realize £150,000 per annum."
Explain the meaning of "mulct" without saying "fleece" or "swindle."
In a 2013 opinion piece for Forbes, Doug Bandow wrote this:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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