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Pledge is a verb, meaning to promise solemnly, and a noun, meaning the promise or its maker or its object.
General The word pledge is used as a synonym for oath, a formal and binding engagement, as in the Pledge of Allegiance used in the United States. Initiant A pledge is also a term used in North America for a new member of a fraternity or sorority, especially before their initiation as a brother or sister. This is called the pledge period and sometimes involves hazing, although new guidelines to reduce hazing have significantly reduced or eliminated hazing to pledges; some national fraternities have abolished the pledge process altogether to prevent hazing. "New member" is the new more politically correct term being used by many Greek organizations by those who forbid their members to refer to new brothers as pledges. Product A furniture polish produced by SC Johnson Wax. Legal In law a pledge (also pawn) is a bailment of personal property as a security for some debt or engagement (Story on Bailments, 286). The term is also used to denote the property which constitutes the security. Pledge is the pignus of Roman law, from which most of the modern law on the subject is derived. It differs from hypothec and from the more usual kind of mortgage in that the pledge is in the possession of the pledgee; it also differs from mortgage in being confined to personal property. A mortgage of personal property in most cases takes the name and form of a bill of sale. As the pledge is for the benefit of both parties, the pledgee is bound to exercise only ordinary care over the pledge. The pledgee has the right of selling the pledge if the pledgor make default in payment at the stipulated time. No right is acquired by the wrongful sale of a pledge except in the case of property passing by delivery, such as money or negotiable securities. In the case of a wrongful sale by a pledgee, the pledgor cannot recover the value of the pledge without a tender of the amount due. In some of the U.S. states the common law as it existed apart from the Factors Acts is still followed; in others the factor has more or less restricted power to give a title by pledge. See also ---- | ||||||||
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