WordNet
n. reduced wage paid to someone who is not working full time
Wikipedia
Half pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service.
The maritime adventure novels of the Horatio Hornblower series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, include numerous references to the protagonist and his fellow naval officers' fear of being retired and "stranded ashore on half-pay", which they consider as their worst nightmare.
Usage examples of "half-pay".
Andre--My First Repentance in Love Affairs I Enjoy the Sweets of Revenge, and Prove a Clever Alibi--Arrest of Count Bonafede--My Release--Arrival of the Bishop--Farewell to Venice The fort, in which the Republic usually kept only a garrison of one hundred half-pay Sclavonians, happened to contain at that time two thousand Albanian soldiers, who were called Cimariotes.
As for budgeting, my first assistant Micky Obbs is on a half-pay retainer until the first day of Principal Photography, along with Des Blackadder and Kevin Skuse.
Her old captain was a full admiral now, but solely because seniority continued to accrue even on half-pay, because that was precisely where he'd been for almost forty years.
It was one of the things Matthews liked about Henries, and probably also a sign of the RMN's professional respect for her, half-pay or no.
It was one of the things Matthews liked about Henries, and probably also a sign of the RMN’s professional respect for her, half-pay or no.
He was fully entitled to wear the uniform of his rank-in either navy-whenever he chose, despite the fact that Sir Edward Janacek had seen fit to place him on inactive, half-pay status with indecent speed as one of his first actions as First Lord of the Admiralty.
That was just the way that Chief Pawl and almost all of his squadron left, and for the same basic reasons: half-pay or none at all and always very late at that, being stringently forbidden such soldierly solaces as strong drink, hemp, tobacco and the company of females within the camp, while at the same time being most strongly forbidden to leave the camp to seek out such pleasure under enforced penalties of flogging, hideous torture, maiming, mutilation, even death.
He takes with him, however, a rather curious associate, who gets over this difficulty but dips his naked foot into creosote, whence come Toby, and a six-mile limp for a half-pay officer with a damaged tendo Achillis.