pensions

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of pension.

   Public sector pensions came under scrutiny during the budget review.

   Their pensions barely kept pace with rising prices.

   Note

   Not every plural here is a retirement payment. The same form counts boarding houses or small hotels, especially in continental Europe, that offer lodging and some meals. Context sorts them, since you stay in pensions but draw them. Historically, pensions were also allowances to royal favorites or patronage for artists and scholars, and a clergyman's pension stood in place of tithes. The spelling is shared with the verb form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of pension.

   The state pensions its veterans after long military service.

   When a teacher retires, the school pensions her at full salary.

   Note

   A verb that always needs an object: someone pensions a person, never simply pensions. It covers two quite different acts. One is granting a pension as a reward. The other is forcing someone to retire on one. So the state pensions its veterans can mean generosity or showing them the door, depending on context. It is spelled like the plural noun, and an object after it marks the verb.

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