1. Hist. An indented certificate of indebtedness issued by the U.S. government or a state government in the late 18th or early 19th century.
2. A contract or deed in writing.
indent (in-dent), vb. Hist.
1. To cut in a serrated or wavy line; esp., to sever (an instrument) along a serrated line to create multiple copies, each fitting into the angles of the other. See CHIROGRAPH; INDENTURE(1).
“If a deed be made by more parties than one, there ought to be regularly as many copies of it as there are parties, and each should be cut or indented (formerly in acute angles instar dentium, but at present in a waving line) on the top or side, to tally or correspond with the other; which deed, so made, is called an indenture…. Deeds thus made were denominated syngrapha by the canonists; and with us chirographa, or hand-writings; the word cirographum or cyrographum being usually that which is divided in making the indenture ….” 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 295–96 (1766).
2. To agree by contract; to bind oneself.
3. To bind (a person) by contract.
