usurer

Noun

usurer (plural usurers)

1. A person who loans money to others and charges interest, particularly at an exorbitant, exploitative, or illegal rate.
   • Vſurers, you are none of theſe cryers vnto God, but thoſe that hourely vnto God are most cryde out againſt. God hath cryde out vnto you by his Preachers, GOD hath cride out vnto you by the poore ; Pryſoners on their death-beds haue cride out of you : and when they haue had but one houre to...1593, Thomas Nash, Christs Teares Over Iervsalem. Whereunto is annexed a comparatiue admonition to London., London: Thomas Thorp, published 1613, →OCLC, page 105; republished as Christ's Tears Over...
   • Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
     So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 4”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   banker, loan shark