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base estate

American  

noun

Old English Law.

  1. an estate held from a lord on the condition of performing some service, especially service of a demeaning nature.

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.

But Starkad would rather be tortured by grievous wounds than use the service of a man of base estate, and first asked his birth and calling.

From The Danish History, Books I-IX by Saxo, Grammaticus

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.