escheat

American  

[es-cheet] / ɛsˈtʃit /

noun

• escheats
  plural

1. 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.

2. the right to take property subject to escheat.

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verb (used without object)

1. to revert by escheat, as to the crown or the state.

verb (used with object)

1. to make an escheat of; confiscate.

escheat British  

/ ɪsˈtʃiːt /

noun

1. (in England before 1926) the reversion of property to the Crown in the absence of legal heirs

2. (in feudal times) the reversion of property to the feudal lord in the absence of legal heirs or upon outlawry of the tenant

3. the property so reverting

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verb

1. to take (land) by escheat or (of land) to revert by escheat

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• escheatage
  noun
• escheatable
  adjective
• unescheatable
  adjective
• unescheated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• escheats
  plural

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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 )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

escheat escheats

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

Spurred by the distant glint of a $34,000 commission on the $160,000, Prospectors Edelman & Creskoff went sluicing up the creeks of other Pennsylvania escheat tributaries.

From Time Magazine Archive

The last case is one of escheat or forfeiture.

From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Paul Vinogradoff

To make out and record all patents for land, and to take the return of all inquests of escheats.

From The History of Virginia, in Four Parts by Robert Beverley

An officer at the exchequer of very ancient establishment, under the lord-treasurer, whose business it is to inform of escheats and casual profits of the crown, and to seize them into the king's hands.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher

What is their duty in regard to escheats, unclaimed dividends and distributive shares?

From School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time by John W. (John Wheeler) Moore

The wards and escheats of the King shall be surveyed yearly by three people assigned by the King.

From Our Legal Heritage by S. A. Reilly

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 William Hunt

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