escheat
Also es·cheat·ment . the reverting of property to the state or some agency of the state, or, as in England, to the lord of the fee or to the crown, when there is a failure of persons legally qualified to inherit or to claim.
the right to take property subject to escheat.
to revert by escheat, as to the crown or the state.
to make an escheat of; confiscate.
Origin of escheat
1Other words from escheat
- es·cheat·a·ble, adjective
- un·es·cheat·a·ble, adjective
- un·es·cheat·ed, adjective
Words Nearby escheat
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use escheat in a sentence
They therefore reported that there should be no escheat of the original grants for non-performance of conditions as to settlement.
History of Prince Edward Island | Duncan CampbellIn case a master died without lawful heirs, his slaves did not escheat, but were regarded as other personal estate or property.
History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 | George W. WilliamsThe same vagueness enshrouds the infancy of the escheat propter defectum tenentis.
Domesday Book and Beyond | Frederic William MaitlandThe burghers power of devising his land made escheat a rare event, and so destroyed the evidence of mesne tenure.
Domesday Book and Beyond | Frederic William MaitlandThe estate would escheat to the king, Hanoverian or Scotchman, before it came to me.
The Two Admirals | J. Fenimore Cooper
British Dictionary definitions for escheat
/ (ɪsˈtʃiːt) law /
(in England before 1926) the reversion of property to the Crown in the absence of legal heirs
(in feudal times) the reversion of property to the feudal lord in the absence of legal heirs or upon outlawry of the tenant
the property so reverting
to take (land) by escheat or (of land) to revert by escheat
Origin of escheat
1Derived forms of escheat
- escheatable, adjective
- escheatage, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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