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gratuity

UK/ɡɹəˈtjuːətɪ/US/ɡɹəˈtuːətɪ/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,843 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: gratuities

A gratuity is extra money left in appreciation of service. Leave a gratuity, a gratuity included, a discretionary gratuity.

It is the formal word on a bill where speech says tip, and the distinction matters: a discretionary gratuity may be refused and a service charge may not. In the forces a gratuity is a lump sum paid on leaving.

Adeeto · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of gratuity

  1. 1noungratuityExtra money left in appreciation of service.C1

    “The bill included a ten per cent gratuity for the waiting staff.”

gratuity is a payment.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin gratuitas means a free gift, from gratus, pleasing or thankful. Grateful is a relative.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *gʷerH-

  2. Middle French

    gratuité

  3. English, today

    gratuity

Borrowed from Middle French gratuité. From Middle French gratuité (from Old French gratuite) or directly from Medieval Latin gratuitas (“a free gift”), from Latin gratuitus (“freely given, free”); see gratuitous.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Restaurant & Cafe

Practise this word

gratuity in the wild

  • Tipping is giving a gratuity to service sector workers.

    Tipping (disambiguation)

  • After his Senate career, and following a lengthy court battle, Brewster pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of accepting an illegal gratuity.

    Daniel Brewster

  • Some provinces allow lower wages to be paid to liquor servers and other gratuity earners or to inexperienced employees.

    Minimum wage in Canada

  • Budge was afterward paid a 150GBP "gratuity" from the British Treasury on behalf of the British Museum for acquiring the papyrus.

    Papyrus of Ani

  • In 1993, he pleaded guilty to and was convicted of accepting a gratuity and obstruction of justice during his tenure in government.

    Thomas Demery

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.