gratuity

From Middle French gratuité (from Old French gratuite) or directly from Medieval Latin gratuitas (“a free gift”), from Latin gratuitus (“freely given, free”); see gratuitous.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɹəˈtjuːətɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡɹəˈtuːətɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

gratuity (plural gratuities)

1. An additional payment given freely as thanks for service.

   The waiter received a generous gratuity.

   The company gave each employee a retirement gratuity.

   service gratuity

   cash gratuity

   leave with a gratuity

2. Euphemistic form of fee, in contexts where such additional payments have been made obligatory.
3. Euphemistic form of bribe.

• (additional payment offered in thanks): douceur, grace, pourboire, tip; baksheesh (Turkish and Middle Eastern contexts); cumshaw (SE Chinese contexts; archaic); see also gift
• (obligatory fee): service charge; douceur, tip (euphemistic)
• (bribe): Thesaurus:bribe
• (additional gift from a vendor): lagniappe

• gratis
• gratuitous
• gratuitously

• “gratuity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “gratuity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.