chattel

[ chat-l ]

/ ˈtʃæt l /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR chattel ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Law. Often chattels. a movable article of personal property.

Often chattels. any article of tangible property other than land, buildings, and other things annexed to land.

a slave.

Nearby words

Origin of chattel

1175–1225; Middle English chatel < Old French. See cattle

Synonym study

1. See property.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for chattel

Maybe no one will be the “husband” (as in, animal husbandry) and no one the chattel.
Were Christians Right About Gay Marriage All Along?|Jay Michaelson|May 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Likely because of his own faith, Carter tries—and fails—to excuse the biblical mandate for reducing women to chattel.
Jimmy Carter Was a Lot Better President Than Almost Anyone Ever Admits|David Masciotra|April 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Within a century, chattel slavery ceased to exist in virtually every modern nation.
How Blacks Freed Themselves from Slavery|Eric Herschthal|February 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Men, women, and children are stripped naked and inspected like chattel, and later, lynched with impunity.
‘12 Years a Slave,’ Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender, Is Mesmerizing|Marlow Stern|August 31, 2013|DAILY BEAST

The NCAA likes to scrutinize and monitor their chattel in the event that money flows their way from outside jobs.
NCAA Championship: The Shame Behind the Game|Evan Weiner|April 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Many think that any chattel may be made an heirloom by any owner of it.
The Eustace Diamonds|Anthony Trollope
Sixty years had Uncle Bushrod given of faithful service to the house of Weymouth as chattel, servitor, and friend.
Roads of Destiny|O. Henry
The holder of that boy only did what the laws allowed him to do, and his conduct was in perfect consistency with chattel slavery.
The Slavery Question|John Lawrence
Nancy McDonald's no sort of chattel to be dealt with any way we fancy.
The Man in the Twilight|Ridgwell Cullum
If a frantic legislature pronounces woman a chattel, has it no power, with returning reason, to take back the blasphemy?
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus|American Anti-Slavery Society

British Dictionary definitions for chattel

chattel

/ (ˈtʃætəl) /

noun

(often plural) property law

chattel personal an item of movable personal property, such as furniture, domestic animals, etc
chattel real an interest in land less than a freehold, such as a lease

goods and chattels personal property

Word Origin for chattel

C13: from Old French chatel personal property, from Medieval Latin capitāle wealth; see capital 1

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

Word Origin and History for chattel

chattel

early 13c., chatel "property, goods," from Old French chatel "chattels, goods, wealth, possessions, property; profit; cattle," from Late Latin capitale "property" (see cattle, which is the Old North French form of the same word). Application to slaves (1640s) is a rhetorical figure of abolitionists, etc.

chattel

noun

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Nearby words

Origin of chattel

Synonym study

Examples from the Web for chattel

chattel

noun

Word Origin for chattel

chattel