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

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

Nevertheless, the lord is entitled to escheat in the event of failure of heirs, just as if the land had not been enfranchised.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 3 "Convention" to "Copyright" by Various

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

He was knighted and rewarded: every one almost was rewarded out of Gowrie’s escheats, or forfeited property. 

From James VI and the Gowrie Mystery by Andrew Lang

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 Robert Beverley

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

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

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