With the public markets virtually closed, public companies can still raise money by selling stock privately to investors, though often on onerous terms.

Some desperate companies agree to such onerous terms that the financing can hurt more than help.

Such onerous terms increase the likelihood that the recipient will find himself back in the same financial hole out from which he just emerged.

But ask venture capitalists or securities lawyers who work with start-ups, and tales of onerous terms will abound.

At this point, the Factory was fully accommodated in terms most onerous to the comfortable accommodation of the inmates.

The owner of a patent does not have the unfettered right to make an invention available only on onerous terms.

Citicorp is still looking for investors to put in at least $400 million more, although it will try to get less onerous terms.

Dillon LJ said that a 'particularly onerous or unusual' term must have special notice.

Obtaining capital on onerous terms has always been a requirement for companies in their infancy.

New, sometimes more onerous terms when accounts are sold to another company.