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.

---

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

---

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

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

See Examples For:

escheat escheats

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

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

Most laymen and many lawyers think of escheat only when persons die without wills and heirs.

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

They refused, moreover, to escheat lands protected by law, and to tax land in a manner tyrannous and contrary to Irish custom.

From The New Irish Constitution by Morgan, J. H.

Fines, escheats, reliefs, forfeitures, wardships, marriages—he heaped exaction on exaction, with mighty little result.

From The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay by Hewlett, Maurice Henry

For the endowment of favourites he had to rely, therefore, on windfalls from attainders and escheats.

From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by Stebbing, W. (William)

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 Moore, John W. (John Wheeler)

"Názir al-Mawárís," the employé charged with the disposal of legacies and seizing escheats to the Crown when Moslems die intestate.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 12 [Supplement] by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

Ahmed's principal occupations are spying his many stalwart cousins, indulging in vain fears of the English, the Turks, and the Hajj Sharmarkay, and amassing treasure by commerce and escheats.

From First Footsteps in East Africa by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir