escheat
Americannoun
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escheats
plural
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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:
ICI wrote that Florida enacted a measure and “prematurely” allowed over $1 billion in securities to escheat to the state.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
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
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
Last week, in a Texas suit involving three other states,*the Supreme Court issued a milestone escheat rule that finally made sense out of chaos.
From Time Magazine Archive
They therefore reported that there should be no escheat of the original grants for non-performance of conditions as to settlement.
From History of Prince Edward Island by Duncan Campbell
He reserved to himself the appointments to all priories and churches, and the military feofs and escheats.
From A Forgotten Hero Not for Him by Emily Sarah Holt
The patents entitled them to all rents and escheats, with power to convey all vacant lands, nominate sheriffs, escheators, surveyors, etc., present to all churches and endow them with lands, to form counties, parishes, etc.
From History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Charles Campbell
These patentees were to receive fees, remainders, reversions and escheats, and were given power to grant patents for all land that had not been taken up.
From Virginia under the Stuarts 1607-1688 by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker
Also of the lands that belonged to erle John, and what goods he had, and what he held in demaine, in wards, escheats, and in gifts, and for what cause they were giuen.
From Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (6 of 12) Richard the First by Raphael Holinshed
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 Orestes Augustus Brownson
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.
