Fund (?), n. [OF. font, fond, nom. fonz, bottom, ground, F. fond bottom, foundation, fonds fund, fr. L. fundus bottom, ground, foundation, piece of land. See Found to establish.]
1.
An aggregation or deposit of resources from which supplies are or may be drawn for carrying on any work, or for maintaining existence.
2.
A stock or capital; a sum of money appropriated as the foundation of some commercial or other operation undertaken with a view to profit; that reserve by means of which expenses and credit are supported; as, the fund of a bank, commercial house, manufacturing corporation, etc.
3. pl.
The stock of a national debt; public securities; evidences (stocks or bonds) of money lent to government, for which interest is paid at prescribed intervals; -- called also public funds.
4.
An invested sum, whose income is devoted to a specific object; as, the fund of an ecclesiastical society; a fund for the maintenance of lectures or poor students; also, money systematically collected to meet the expenses of some permanent object.
5.
A store laid up, from which one may draw at pleasure; a supply; a full provision of resources; as, a fund of wisdom or good sense.
An inexhaustible fund of stories.
Macaulay.
Sinking fund, the aggregate of sums of money set apart and invested, usually at fixed intervals, for the extinguishment of the debt of a government, or of a corporation, by the accumulation of interest.
© Webster 1913.
Fund, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Funded; p. pr. & vb. n. Funding.]
1.
To provide and appropriate a fund or permanent revenue for the payment of the interest of; to make permanent provision of resources (as by a pledge of revenue from customs) for discharging the interest of or principal of; as, to fund government notes.
2.
To place in a fund, as money.
3.
To put into the form of bonds or stocks bearing regular interest; as, to fund the floating debt.
© Webster 1913.