freehold

[free-hohld]Law.

See more synonyms for freehold on Thesaurus.com

an estate in land, inherited or held for life.

noun

a form of tenure by which an estate is held in fee simple, fee tail, or for life.

adjective

pertaining to, of the nature of, or held by freehold.

Origin of freehold

1375–1425; late Middle English frehold (see free, hold¹); translation of Anglo-French franc tenement (see frank¹, tenement)

Freehold

[free-hohld]

noun

a town in E New Jersey: battle of Monmouth courthouse 1778.

Formerly Monmouth.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for freehold

plot, land, wealth, estate, farm, house, tract, goods, ownership, equity, home, worth, property, parcel, area, residence, ranch, plantation, meadow, lawn

Examples from the Web for freehold

Contemporary Examples of freehold

We would do well to remember he doesn't possess the freehold.
The Coronation of King Obama
Katty Kay
January 18, 2009

Historical Examples of freehold

His right to the land, in fact, was not freehold, but tenure by villein socage.
The Philippine Islands
John Foreman
Such was the issue of the battle of Freehold, or of Monmouth, as the Americans call it.
Reminiscences of the Military Life and Sufferings of Col. Timothy Bigelow, Commander of the Fifteenth Regiment of the Massachusetts Line in the Continental Army, during the War of the Revolution
Charles Hersey
The landholder in Virginia became then in effect a freehold tenant of the King.
Mother Earth
W. Stitt Robinson, Jr.
I suppose you wouldn't know whether the land about there was freehold?
The Forsyte Saga, Complete
John Galsworthy
The squire greatly coveted the freehold of Queen Anne's Farm.
Rhoda Fleming, Complete
George Meredith

British Dictionary definitions for freehold

freehold

noun

1. tenure by which land is held in fee simple, fee tail, or for life
2. an estate held by such tenure

adjective

relating to or having the nature of freehold

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 freehold

early 15c. (implied in freeholder), translating Anglo-French fraunc tenement; see free (adj.) + hold (n.). Related: Freeholder.