bounty

[ boun-tee ]

noun

, plural boun·ties.

1. a premium or reward, especially one offered by a government:

   There was a bounty on his head. Some states offer a bounty for dead coyotes.

2. a generous gift.

   Synonyms: benefaction, present

3. generosity in giving.

   Synonyms: beneficence, charity, liberality, munificence

bounty

¹

/ ˈbaʊntɪ /

noun

1. generosity in giving to others; liberality
2. a generous gift; something freely provided
3. a payment made by a government, as, formerly, to a sailor on enlisting or to a soldier after a campaign
4. any reward or premium

   a bounty of 20p for every rat killed

Bounty

²

/ ˈbaʊntɪ /

noun

1. a British naval ship commanded by Captain William Bligh, which was on a scientific voyage in 1789 between Tahiti and the West Indies when her crew mutinied

Other Words From

• bounty·less adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bounty¹

1200–50; Middle English b ( o ) unte < Anglo-French, Old French bonte, Old French bontet < Latin bonitāt- (stem of bonitās ) goodness. See boon ², -ity

Word History and Origins

Origin of bounty¹

C13 (in the sense: goodness): from Old French bontet , from Latin bonitās goodness, from bonus good

Synonym Study

See bonus.

Example Sentences

Of course, cinema has set feasts on screen for a long, long time, using food to evoke desire, love, loneliness, bounty, joy, and a lot more.

From Vox

Scientists locked in on that goal some decades ago and set out to clone a single “elite” palm, one that produced a bounty of oil, into 50,000 palms just like it.

From Nautilus

So, this conglomerate of women, plus the bounty hunter, equaled intrigue for Rachel and me.

From Vox

Finally, if you panic-planted a pandemic garden, salads are by far the best way to deploy your bounty.

From Outside Online

Snap delivered its annual “partner summit” virtually in the second-quarter, where it showed off a bounty of new products including Minis, which lets third-party developers create what are essentially mini apps inside of the Snapchat platform.

From Digiday

Rural churches were deserted, and the connection between the land and the bounty of harvests was gone.

From The Daily Beast

A bounty hunter told AFP that the suspected Texan could very well be Everett Livvix of Robinson, Illinois.

From The Daily Beast

The state of Idaho paid a bounty hunter to kill wolves in the Salmon River country.

From The Daily Beast

ISIS also had made use of its bounty of captured American equipment.

From The Daily Beast

Lobbyists use these trips to lavish bounty on Congressmen, far from prying eyes.

From The Daily Beast

Instinct had prompted her to put away her husband's bounty in casting off her allegiance.

From Project Gutenberg

I feel most grateful to you for your kindness, for your generous sympathy in my sorrow, but I cannot accept your bounty.

From Project Gutenberg

The good folk do not accept the bounty of their Queen without making her a return for it in kind.

From Project Gutenberg

This fair one was attended by Bounty, Beauty, and all the rest; they are called a folk in l. 48.

From Project Gutenberg

A testator may bequeath property to a trustee who shall select the objects of the testator's bounty.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• donation
• gift
• largess
• premium
• prize
• reward

More About Bounty

What does bounty mean?

A bounty is a reward, especially one offered in an official way for the capture of someone or something.

This sense of the word most often refers to the reward sought by bounty hunters for tracking down and capturing fugitive criminals (or, in older times, killing them). A more recent use of the word refers to the reward offered for identifying a software vulnerability in a company’s or organization’s system.

In a broader sense, the word bounty means a generous gift or generosity in general. This sense of the word is most often used in a poetic way, such as referring to crops as the bounty of the land. The H.M.S. Bounty, the ship aboard which the notorious mutiny occurred, was probably named after this sense of the word.

Example: The bounty offered for the capture of Billy the Kid was $500—dead or alive.

Where does bounty come from?

The first records of the word bounty come from the 1200s. It comes from the Latin bonitās, meaning “goodness,” from the Latin bonus, meaning “good.” (The English word bonus comes from the same Latin word.) Bounty was first used in English to mean “goodness.” Eventually, it came to mean “generosity,” and then “gift,” and then “reward.”

When it means “gift,” bounty often refers to natural gifts from the earth. Nature’s bounty refers to things like fruits and vegetables. The bounty of the sea is fish.

Bounty was once used to refer to a payment made by the government to sailors or soldiers after a war. But today it’s most commonly used to refer to the reward sought by bounty hunters. If someone says there’s a bounty on your head, it means there’s a reward for your capture. In popular culture, bounty hunters are most often seen in tales of the American Wild West. They’re often depicted as gunslingers out to get the bounties for criminals who are “wanted dead or alive.” Several bounty hunters also appear in the Star Wars series, including Boba Fett and the character known as the Mandalorian.

In real life, bounties are sometimes offered for the killing or capture of animals, such as invasive snakes.

They’re also sometimes paid to white hat hackers who discover bugs or security gaps in software and websites and let the owners know about them. Google, for example, has a long-running bounty program that pays people for discovering such flaws in its systems.

Did you know ... ?

What are some other forms related to bounty?

• bountiful (adjective)
• bountyless (adjective)

What are some synonyms for bounty?

• reward
• gift

What are some words that share a root or word element with bounty? 

• bonus
• bounty hunter

What are some words that often get used in discussing bounty?

• wanted
• fugitive
• criminal
• nature
• land
• sea

How is bounty used in real life?

Bounty most often refers to the reward sought by bounty hunters.

also i enjoy that this series suggests that the star wars universe is like John Wick where every other person is a bounty hunter

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 25, 2019

Wow my first @Google Bug Bounty :) #Google #Bug #Blogger #Vulnerability pic.twitter.com/I4AZbxC5bD

— Mohamed A. Basset (@SymbianSyMoh) May 15, 2014

We envision a society that protects the earth, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.

— Chicago Rising (@ChicagoRising) February 1, 2014

 

 

Try using bounty!

Is bounty used correctly in the following sentence?

The sultan welcomed the travelers with a bounty of delicious fruits.