fief

American  

[feef] / fif /

noun

1. a fee or feud held of a feudal lord; a tenure of land subject to feudal obligations.

2. a territory held in fee.

3. fiefdom.

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fief British  

/ fiːf /

noun

1. (in feudal Europe) the property or fee granted to a vassal for his maintenance by his lord in return for service

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fief Cultural  

1. Under feudalism, a landed estate given by a lord to a vassal in return for the vassal's service to the lord. The vassal could use the fief as long as he remained loyal to the lord.

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Etymology

Origin of fief

1605–15; < French, variant of Old French fieu, fie, cognate with Anglo-French fe fee < Germanic; compare Old High German fihu, Old English feoh cattle, property; akin to Latin pecū flock of sheep, pecus cattle, pecūnia wealth

Example Sentences

But that meant Assad and his family giving up a country that they treated for years as their personal fief.

From BBC

The country, they warn, is barreling into a protracted conflict that could lead to anarchy or rival fiefs, like Somalia in the 1990s or Libya after 2011.

From New York Times

He is building it out into a corrupt, theocratic fief across North Dakota and the open expanses of the Upper Midwest.

From New York Times

Disney arguably allowed Mr. Perlmutter to keep a fief long after it made financial sense to do so.

From New York Times

Mr. Monastyrsky, like Mr. Zelensky, took office pledging to root out the corruption that had long bedeviled Ukraine’s government, in particular the interior ministry’s history of operating as a separate political fief.

From New York Times