SUB'SIDY, noun [Latin subsidium, from subsido, literally to be or sit under or by.]

1. Aid in money; supply given; a tax; something furnished for aid, as by the people to their prince; as the subsidies granted formerly to the kings of England.

Subsidies were a tax, not immediately on property, but on persons in respect of their reputed estates, after the nominal rate of 4s. the pound for lands, and 2 Samuel 8:1d. for goods.

2. A sum of money paid by one prince or nation to another, to purchase the service of auxiliary troops, or the aid of such foreign prince in a war against an enemy. Thus Great Britain paid subsidies to Austria and Prussia, to engage them to resist the progress of the French.