Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To apply a means test to or require a means test for (a governmental program, for example).
  • intransitive verb To subject to a means test.

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

  • verb To subject a person to a means test, or to require a means test in order to receive a benefit

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word means-test.

Examples

  • Westminster council is proposing to means-test social housing tenants.

    Westminster council to draft 'civic contracts' for benefit recipients 2011

  • Plans to means-test employment and support allowance ESA payments for disabled people after only a year were rejected by peers.

    Lords inflict triple welfare bill defeat on government 2012

  • There are widespread reports that the Obama Administration had agreed to support an increase in Medicare's eligibility age, to means-test certain Medicare programs, to cut Medicaid benefits and to restructure the payments of Social Security benefits as part of a grand bargain with Republicans, if there was also a plan to increase revenue.

    Natalie Pace: FAQs on the Standard & Poor's Downgrade of the U.S. Credit Rating Natalie Pace 2011

  • Tyler Cowen wants to means-test Medicare, get rid of farm subsidies and other corporate welfare, legalize more high-skilled immigrants, join Greg Mankiw's Pigou Club (meaning a tax on the use of evil fossil fuels) and get rid of the corporate income tax, and implement full-scale voucher experiments.

    Fantasy Agendas, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • But then I realized that the people making those arguments wanted to do things like means-test Medicare, or increase cost-sharing across the system, and generally reduce costs in this or that way, which would cut innovation in exactly the same way that single-payer would hypothetically cut innovation: by reducing profits.

    Coyote Blog » 2009 » September 2009

  • There are widespread reports that the Obama Administration had agreed to support an increase in Medicare's eligibility age, to means-test certain Medicare programs, to cut Medicaid benefits and to restructure the payments of Social Security benefits as part of a grand bargain with Republicans, if there was also a plan to increase revenue.

    Natalie Pace: FAQs on the Standard & Poor's Downgrade of the U.S. Credit Rating Natalie Pace 2011

  • There are widespread reports that the Obama Administration had agreed to support an increase in Medicare's eligibility age, to means-test certain Medicare programs, to cut Medicaid benefits and to restructure the payments of Social Security benefits as part of a grand bargain with Republicans, if there was also a plan to increase revenue.

    Natalie Pace: FAQs on the Standard & Poor's Downgrade of the U.S. Credit Rating Natalie Pace 2011

  • There are widespread reports that the Obama Administration had agreed to support an increase in Medicare's eligibility age, to means-test certain Medicare programs, to cut Medicaid benefits and to restructure the payments of Social Security benefits as part of a grand bargain with Republicans, if there was also a plan to increase revenue.

    Natalie Pace: FAQs on the Standard & Poor's Downgrade of the U.S. Credit Rating Natalie Pace 2011

  • There are widespread reports that the Obama Administration had agreed to support an increase in Medicare's eligibility age, to means-test certain Medicare programs, to cut Medicaid benefits and to restructure the payments of Social Security benefits as part of a grand bargain with Republicans, if there was also a plan to increase revenue.

    Natalie Pace: FAQs on the Standard & Poor's Downgrade of the U.S. Credit Rating Natalie Pace 2011

  • We should also means-test so that wealthier retirees get less.

    6 places to start cutting government 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.