mesne

American  

[meen] / min /

adjective

Law.

1. intermediate or intervening.

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mesne British  

/ miːn /

adjective

1. intermediate or intervening: used esp of any assignment of property before the last

   a mesne assignment

2. rents or profits accruing during the rightful owner's exclusion from his land

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Etymology

Origin of mesne

1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, spelling variant of meen mean ³

Example Sentences

This and many another case was before My Lords and known to the intelligent Commons when the question of the abolition of arrest on mesne process came up for discussion in 1837.

From The Law and the Poor by Parry, Edward Abbott

Earl township, Pa., assignees, by mesne assignments, of Martin W. Zimmerman and John Zimmerman.

From Scientific American, Volume 22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures. by Various

Probably the solidi thus paid to him are mesne rents received by the King and accounted for to Theodahad.

From The Letters of Cassiodorus Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator by Hodgkin, Thomas

But in no case shall the person of the defendant be imprisoned for the debt, though the process, whether original, mesne, or final, be for the form sake directed against his person.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson

In fact, at the Peace Conference of 546, it was agreed between the two mesne lords that the vassals of Ts'u should pay their respects to Tsin, and vice versa.

From Ancient China Simplified by Parker, Edward Harper