support payment
7
3.5
- noun
- /səˈpɔrt ˈpeɪmənt/
- Formal
:
pensión alimentaria
- After their divorce, he was ordered to make support payments to help with the child's expenses.
- child support payment
Examples
-
We have 30 new cases this week alone and we've only been able to locate five people to collect child support payments.
-
The best interests of a child do not involve a parent defaulting on support payments.
Blog text (19) -
Nor have I ever missed a child support payment.
Blog text (12) -
That guy makes as many car sales as I make child support payments.
-
I was divorced for 14 years and missed exactly zero child support payments on my two kids.
Blog text (22) -
Says the grown man who had to be dragged to court to settle his child support payments.
Blog text (22) -
Would I defer his child support payments until he got out of school?
Fiction book (1994) -
In 2009, the couple's younger son went to college, and again Frank sought a reduction in child support payments.
Blog text (24) -
During Turner's most recent contempt hearing, the clerk of court informed him that he was nearly $6000 behind in child support payments.
Academic text (2017) -
First, divorced mothers are far more likely to receive formal child-support payments from the fathers than is the case for never-married mothers.
Academic text (1997)
Synonyms
111
2.7
Money a parent must pay to the parent who cares for their children after separation to help with living costs
73
6.3
Money a court orders one partner to pay the other after divorce to help them
32
2.1
Money given to help pay for a project, charity, or person
21
4.4
Money paid to an ex-partner or children to help support them after a divorce
How Much
16
3.3
- Formal
7
3.5
- US
24
3.2
- Specialized
2
4.0
1
4.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'support' (funding or help) + 'payment' (giving money) yields a payment intended to provide support, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the basic meaning. While the legal nuance of court-ordered or regular maintenance may require context, the core idea of a payment for someone's upkeep is transparently derivable and mirrored in many languages.
Etymology
Support payment comes from a simple, literal image: money given to 'support' someone, where support means help and payment means money given regularly. That's why it means 'a regular payment to help someone' and is often ordered by a court.