Definition for
subsidy
noun – An aid in money; pecuniary aid.
noun – Especially— In English history, an aid or tax formerly granted by Parliament to the crown for the urgent occasions of the realm, and levied on every subject of ability according to the value of his lands or goods; a tax levied on a particular occasion.
noun – A sum paid, often according to treaty, by one government to another, sometimes to secure its neutrality, but more frequently to meet the expenses of carrying on a war.
noun – Any direct pecuniary aid furnished by the state to private industrial undertakings, or to eleemosynary institutions. Such aid includes bounties on exports, those paid to the owners of ships for running them, and donations of land or money to railroad, manufacturing, theatrical, and other enterprises.
noun – Synonyms Subsidy, Subvention. In the original and essential meaning of a government grant in aid of a commercial enterprise, these termsare substantially equivalent; but two circumstances lead to some difference in common usage.
noun – Such grants being rarely, if ever, made in England or the United States except in aid of the mercantile marine, the establishment of lines of transportation, or the like, subsidy is used more commonly than subvention in reference to such enterprises, while, such grants being frequent in France in aid of the drama and the press, etc., the word subvention is used more commonly than subsidy in application to enterprises connected with literature and the arts.
noun – Writers who oppose all such uses of public funds commonly prefer to characterize them as subsidies, while those who approve of them commonly prefer the term subvention.
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