Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SURE-TY, n. [Fr. sureté.]

1. Certainty; indubitableness. Know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. – Gen. xv.
2. Security; safety. Yet for the more surely they looked round about. – Sidney.
3. Foundation of stability; support. We our state / Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds; / On other surety none. – Milton.
4. Evidence; ratification; confirmation. She call'd the saints to surety, / That she would never put it from her finger, / Unless she gave it to yourself. – Shak.
5. Security against lose or damage; security for payment. There remains unpaid / A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which / One part of Aquitain is bound to us. – Shak.
6. In law, one that is bound with and for another; one who enters into a bond or recognizance to answer for another's appearance in court, or for his payment of a debt or for the performance of some act, and who, in case of the principal debtor's failure, is compellable to pay the debt or damages; a bondsman; a bail. He that is surely for a stranger, shall smart for it. – Prov. xi. Thy servant became surety for the lad to my father. – Gen. xliv.
7. In Scripture, Christ is called, “the surety of a better testament.” Heb. vii. 22. He undertook to make atonement for the sins of men, and thus prepare the way to deliver them from the punishment to which they had rendered themselves liable.
8. A hostage.