escheat
Americannoun
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Also escheatment 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.
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the right to take property subject to escheat.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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(in England before 1926) the reversion of property to the Crown in the absence of legal heirs
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(in feudal times) the reversion of property to the feudal lord in the absence of legal heirs or upon outlawry of the tenant
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the property so reverting
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of escheat
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English eschete, exschete, from Old French eschete, eschaete, escheoite, feminine past participle of escheoir, from Vulgar Latin excadēre (unrecorded) “to fall to a person's share,” equivalent to Latin ex- ex- 1 + cadere “to fall” ( Vulgar Latin cadēre )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Under the English and Welsh legal system, the freehold is now subject to an unusual and ancient process known as "escheat".
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2024
The state in which it is located gets it through "escheat," a feudal doctrine by which the land of a man who died without heirs reverted to the original grantor, or lord of the manor.
From Time Magazine Archive
Technicalities over the $160,000 have at long last reached the U. S. Supreme Court whose rulings in comparable cases have upheld the escheat rights of the States.
From Time Magazine Archive
Most laymen and many lawyers think of escheat only when persons die without wills and heirs.
From Time Magazine Archive
"And the estates of the rebels, they escheat to the temples of the insulted gods?" asked the priest, with hungry eyes.
From Valeria The Martyr of the Catacombs by Withrow, William Henry
He went over with this grant in the year 1690, and set up an office in the Neck, claiming some escheats; but he likewise could make nothing of it.
From The History of Virginia, in Four Parts by Beverley, Robert
All escheats of private estates, but no public or general escheats.
From The American Republic : constitution, tendencies and destiny by Brownson, Orestes Augustus
Ahmed's principal occupations are spying his many stalwart cousins, indulging in vain fears of the English, the Turks, and the Hajj Sharmarkay, and amassing treasure by commerce and escheats.
From First Footsteps in East Africa by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Hence, the feudal baron is invested with his fief by the suzerain, holds it from him, and to him it escheats when forfeited or vacant.
From The American Republic : constitution, tendencies and destiny by Brownson, Orestes Augustus
Peter of Rivaux became keeper of wards and escheats, castellan of many castles on the Welsh march, and the recipient of even more offices and wardships in Ireland than in England.
From The History of England From the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377) by Hunt, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
