[f. as prec. + MONEY.]
Money paid as the price of blood: a. A reward for bringing about the death of another; money paid to a witness who gives evidence leading to the conviction of a person upon a capital charge. b. Money paid to the next of kin as compensation for the slaughter of a relative.
1535. Coverdale, Matt. xxvii. 6. It is not laufull to put them in to the Gods chest for it is bloudmoney.
1818. Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 228. Spies and blood-money bands.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, I. 160. [She] received a thousand marks of pure silver as blood-money for the massacre of her husband and her two sons.
1862. R. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 186. The village benefited by the blood-money that was brought home; the Zemindar, or headman, was paid a tribute or hush-money.
1862. Mary E. Rogers, Dom. Life Palestine, 295. He was … condemned to pay a certain sum, as ‘blood-money,’ to the heirs of the deceased.
