noun
1. : money or other benefit obtained as the price or at the cost of another's life or sometimes of his happiness, good name, or welfare — used especially of a reward for supporting a capital charge, of money received for betraying a fugitive or for committing murder, or of the price obtained by sale of something that will destroy the purchaser
2. : money paid by a manslayer or members of his family, clan, or tribe to the next of kin of a person killed by him — compare wergild