Meaning of chetty | Babel Free

Definitions

A member of one of various South Indian castes of merchants, money-lenders and land-owners.

Equivalents

Examples

“A contract is made, usually by the house itself, with the chetties for such a quantity of cotton of such a quality, and the very lowest sum is fixed. The chetty, finding he cannot get⟳ a price that would justify⟳ the delivery of such cotton as he has contracted for, agrees to it, well knowing that they must take⟳ such as he chooses to deliver⟳ to them at the time.”

“Far too many Burmese farmers are heavily in debt to the "chetties," the money-lending caste of the Madras coast.”

“[…] Li Yeik or the Indian chetty in the bazaar would cash cheques […]”

“2000, Laure Adler, Marguerite Duras: A Life, translated by Anne-Marie Glasheen, London: Victor Gollancz, Chapter 3, p. 58, https://books.google.ca/books?id=RRxxlYQTzNYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false […] Marguerite's mother was earning 22,000 francs a month. A quarter of that went to the owner of the Saigon boarding house; another quarter to Pierre's tutor in France and a third went to the chetties to pay⟳ off loans made for the concession.”

CEFR level