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Glite Dictionary
liar's mortgage

liar's mortgage

9.6
A home loan made after a person gives false details to qualify
  • noun
  • /ˈlaɪərz ˈmɔrɡɪdʒ/
  • US
translation icon : hipoteca engañosa
  • Lawmakers introduced stricter lending standards to prevent another liar's mortgage scandal.

Examples

  • Many homeowners regret taking out a liar's mortgage.

  • After the financial crash, the prevalence of the liar's mortgage became widely known.

  • The bank is reviewing all accounts to find any liar's mortgage cases from recent years.

  • A liar's mortgage can lead to serious legal consequences.

  • After the financial crash, many borrowers were affected by liar's mortgage schemes that used fraudulent information.

  • Lawmakers introduced stricter regulations to combat the risks associated with liar's mortgage practices in the lending industry.

  • The bank initiated an investigation into potential liar's mortgage instances to ensure compliance with lending laws.

Surface Forms

liar's mortgage singular
liar's mortgages plural

Morphology

liar's + mortgage

The meaning is directly derivable from the parts: the possessive 'liar's' signals that the mortgage is connected to lying, and 'mortgage' denotes a loan secured on property, so a learner can infer a loan obtained through false information. This possessive + noun composition is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern, making the expression immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.

Etymology

Liar's mortgage comes from the simple image of a home loan built on lies, where the liar, the person asking for the loan, gives false income or papers so they can get the mortgage. That's why the phrase means a loan made with false or misleading information.