hotchpot

American  

[hoch-pot] / ˈhɒtʃˌpɒt /

noun

Law.

1. the bringing together of shares or properties in order to divide them equally, especially when they are to be divided among the children of a parent dying intestate.

---

hotchpot British  

/ ˈhɒtʃˌpɒt /

noun

1. property law the collecting of property so that it may be redistributed in equal shares, esp on the intestacy of a parent who has given property to his children in his lifetime

---

Etymology

Origin of hotchpot

1250–1300; Middle English hochepot < Anglo-French, literally, shake-pot. See hotch, pot ¹

Example Sentences

The farmers were persuaded to throw their varied assortment of fields into hotchpot and then to have the mass cut up into oblong fields of equal or relative sizes.

From The Foundations of Japan Notes Made During Journeys Of 6,000 Miles In The Rural Districts As A Basis For A Sounder Knowledge Of The Japanese People by Scott, J.W. Robertson

However, after compliments, and more protestations from its owner, the Strad was brought into hotchpot, and Lætitia abdicated.

From Somehow Good by De Morgan, William Frend

This root is much used among the Dutch people in a kind of loblolly or hotchpot, which they do eat, calling it warmus.

From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by Fernie, William Thomas

Hotchpot.—Will you kindly tell me what is the derivation of the local term hotchpot, and when it was first used?

From Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc. by Various

Satire first signified a basket of first fruits offered to Ceres; then a hotchpot or olla podrida, then a medley; and so the name was given to poems written without any definite design.

From History of English Humour, Vol. 1 With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour by L'Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingan