Money paid in order to save a place from being plundered by a hostile force. (See ransom.) Also, a sum raised among merchants, where goods have been thrown overboard in stress of weather, towards the loss of the owners thereof.
·noun The act of <<Contributing>>. II. Contribution ·noun An irregular and arbitrary imposition or ...
Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
·add. ·- A plan of distributing surplus by giving to each policy the excess of premiums and interest...