watered stock
- noun
- /ˈwɔːtərd stɑk/
- Archaic
:
acciones sobrevaloradas
- The company was accused of issuing watered stock to attract naive investors.
Examples
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In the nineteenth century, unscrupulous businessmen often sold watered stock to inflate their profits.
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Regulators introduced rules to prevent the creation of watered stock in public markets.
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Investors are wary of watered stock.
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Many companies face scrutiny for issuing watered stocks.
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The company was accused of issuing watered stock to attract naive investors.
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Regulators introduced rules to prevent the creation of watered stock in public markets.
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In the nineteenth century, unscrupulous businessmen often sold watered stock to inflate their profits.
Antonyms
How Inflated
Surface Forms
Morphology
watered + stock
The phrase 'watered stock' uses a historical/financial metaphor (watered) that does not straightforwardly map onto the literal meaning of 'water' + 'stock' for an average B1 learner. Its sense of shares whose stated value is inflated is a specialized, idiomatic financial usage rather than a directly compositional meaning, so learners who only know the constituents are unlikely to infer it.
Etymology
Watered stock may come from a trick with farm animals: sellers would give cattle extra water, so the animals were watered and the stock looked heavier and worth more. So watered stock now means shares that are 'overvalued' or 'made to look more valuable than they really are'.