TRIBUTE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tribute mean? 

• TRIBUTE (noun)
  The noun TRIBUTE has 3 senses:

1. something given or done as an expression of esteem

2. payment by one nation for protection by another

3. payment extorted by gangsters on threat of violence

  Familiarity information: TRIBUTE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRIBUTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something given or done as an expression of esteem

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

testimonial; tribute

Hypernyms ("tribute" is a kind of...):

approval; commendation (a message expressing a favorable opinion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Payment by one nation for protection by another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("tribute" is a kind of...):

defrayal; defrayment; payment (the act of paying money)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Payment extorted by gangsters on threat of violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

protection; tribute

Context example:

every store in the neighborhood had to pay him protection

Hypernyms ("tribute" is a kind of...):

extortion (the felonious act of extorting money (as by threats of violence))

 Context examples 

Mr. Micawber closed this handsome tribute by saying, Mr. Heep!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But when you mentioned Mrs. Dixon, I felt how much more probable that it should be the tribute of warm female friendship.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

This I humbly offered to his majesty, as a small tribute of acknowledgment, in turn for so many marks that I had received, of his royal favour and protection.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Then the tribute the mob paid him was a sorry tribute indeed, for that same mob had wallowed "Ephemera" into the mire.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

James accepted this tribute of gratitude, and qualified his conscience for accepting it too, by saying with perfect sincerity, “Indeed, Catherine, I love you dearly.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The confidence he had thought fit to repose in me seemed a tribute to my discretion: I regarded and accepted it as such.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I wish you could have overheard her tribute of praise; I wish you could have seen her countenance, when she said that you should be Henry's wife.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They all liked Jo immensely, but never fell in love with her, though very few escaped without paying the tribute of a sentimental sigh or two at Amy's shrine.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Pardon this gush of sorrow; these ineffectual words are but a slight tribute to the unexampled worth of Henry, but they soothe my heart, overflowing with the anguish which his remembrance creates.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And beyond him again there is tribute to be levied from the Cham of Tartary and from the kingdom of Cathay.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)