dividend

Etymology

From Middle French dividende, from Latin dividendum (“thing to be divided”), future passive participle of divido (“to divide”).

noun

1. (finance) A cash payment of money by a company to its shareholders, usually made periodically (e.g., quarterly or annually).
2. (arithmetic) A number or expression that is to be divided by another.
   In "42 ÷ 3" the dividend is the 42.
3. (figurative) Beneficial results from a metaphorical investment (of time, effort, etc.)
   His 10,000 hours of practice and recitals eventually paid dividends when he become first-chair violinist.
   That blood and pain paid a dividend, too, even when the subject wasn't a sorcerer. 2012, Cameron Haley, Retribution
   The money I'd spent on getting scuba certified was about to pay a dividend. My half-baked escape plan came together. 2014, Bobby Adair, Slow Burn: Dead Fire, Book 4:
   'Why not: you, Elvira, will shortly pay a dividend, that is, have a child.' 2016, Christina Stead, The Beauties and Furies, page 163

verb

1. To pay out a dividend.
   He held instead that the words "sell or otherwise dispose of" in Clause 2 of the Shareholders' Agreement prevented the dividending of the shares in Hawker Holdings to the shareholders of Hawker Siddeley […] 1997, Shareholder Rights, Oppression and Good Faith, page 40
   Therefore, $125 million of 1983 Preferred Shares (Blue Jay) would be tendered for retirement with $135 million of the $370 million dividended up to Blue Jay. 2007, Kevin K. Boeh, Paul W. Beamish, Mergers and Acquisitions: Text and Cases, page 324