investment

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of investing.
• noun An amount invested.
• noun Property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit.
• noun A commitment, as of time or support.
• noun A military siege.
• noun Investiture.
• noun A garment; a vestment.
• noun An outer covering or layer.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun That with which a person or thing is invested or covered; clothing; vestment; covering.
• noun The act of investing, or the state of being invested, as with a right, office, or attribute; endowment; investiture.
• noun A surrounding or hemming in; blockade of the avenues of ingress and egress, as for the besieging of a town or fortress; inclosure by armed force or other obstruction.
• noun An investing of money or capital; expenditure for profit or future benefit; a placing or conversion of capital in a way intended to secure income or profit from its employment: as, an investment in active business, or in stocks, land, or the like; to make safe investment of one's principal.
• noun That which is invested; money or capital laid out for the purpose of producing profit or benefit.
• noun That in which money is laid out or invested: as, land is the safest investment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of investing, or the state of being invested.
• noun That with which anyone is invested; a vestment.
• noun (Mil.) The act of surrounding, blocking up, or besieging by an armed force, or the state of being so surrounded.
• noun The laying out of money in the purchase of some species of property; also, the amount of money invested, or that in which money is invested.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of investing, or state of being invested.
• noun finance A placement of capital in expectation of deriving income or profit from its use.
• noun That with which anyone is invested; a vestment.
• noun military The act of surrounding, blocking up, or besieging by an armed force, or the state of being so surrounded.
• noun A mixture of silica sand and plaster which, by surrounding a wax pattern, creates a negative mold of the form used for casting, among other metals, bronze.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun outer layer or covering of an organ or part or organism
• noun the commitment of something other than money (time, energy, or effort) to a project with the expectation of some worthwhile result
• noun money that is invested with an expectation of profit
• noun the ceremonial act of clothing someone in the insignia of an office; the formal promotion of a person to an office or rank
• noun the act of investing; laying out money or capital in an enterprise with the expectation of profit
• noun the act of putting on robes or vestments