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garnishment

garnishment

2 9.6
A court order to take part of someone's pay or money in their bank account to pay a debt
  • noun
  • /ˈɡɑrnɪʃmənt/
  • Jargon
: embargo
  • The court issued a garnishment order to withhold part of his salary to settle the unpaid loan.
  • wage garnishment
  • garnishment order
  • garnishment letter

However, your stimulus check cannot be garnished for state, federal, and bank debt garnishments.

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Examples

  • However, debt collection garnishments from the state and from banks will not occur.

  • Almost half of student loan recipients are unable to make payments, and even older borrowers are defaulting at high rates, which can result in such hardships as garnishment of Social Security benefits.

    Academic text (2016)
  • All of these options will protect your income from garnishment and your credit from damage.

    Blog text (9)
  • Hmm, I see, I guess, garnishment of your wages is out of the question then, huh?

  • There is no wage garnishment unless the debt is for child support or taxes.

    Blog text (18)
  • It's an IRS garnishment for back taxes.

  • So it's basically wage garnishment forever until I die or until the people who are defrauded are paid back.

  • The debtor has to disclose where he is working. Then, the creditor has to get a writ of execution/garnishment from the court.

    Blog text (6)
  • You work diligently to get all of your returns properly prepared, and now you receive an IRS notice that promises liens on assets, levies to bank accounts, and garnishments to your wages.

    Blog text (16)
  • A San Francisco property owner recently moved for garnishment of Halverson's pay from the state of Nevada, according to Shawn Miller, a shareholder at the Las Vegas law firm of Shea & Carlyon, which represents the landlord.

    Academic text (2007)

How Much

seizure
  • Formal
52 6.1
confiscation
14 5.4
garnishment
  • Jargon
2 9.6
withholding
7 7.0
deduction
142 3.0

Surface Forms

garnishment singular
garnishments plural

Morphology

garnishment = garnish (opaque) = garnish + ment

Although formed by suffixation from the verb 'garnish', the legal sense ('withholding wages') is specialized and not transparently derivable from the more common sense 'decorate'.

Etymology

The word garnishment comes from the common word garnish, which long ago could mean 'to take' or 'to hold' and not only 'to decorate'. So a garnishment is when a court 'takes' part of someone's pay to give to a person they owe.