windbill

1. (finance, slang) A signed agreement to act as guarantor for another's debt.Examples: "He would have got a bank-credit, manoeuvred with windbills, dashed out upon a large scale, and soon have seen his crop and stock sequestered by the Sheriff'; but in those days a man could not ruin himself so easily."; "How frequently do we find persons establishing an extensive business on credit when they have no funds of their own; using windbills and sometimes forgeries; furnishing elegant houses with money which is not their own; living in luxury and splendour; dashing along in gigs and landaus; ..."; "But then culpa tenet suos auctores, and that would bring the case to this question, had the master authority from the owner to grant this windbill of lading?"slang