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mesne

[meen]
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adjective Law.
  1. intermediate or intervening.
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Origin of mesne

1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, spelling variant of meen mean3
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for mesne

Historical Examples

  • And what's he to start with, if there's no mesne profits forthcoming?

    Ten Thousand a-Year (Vol. 2)

    Samuel Warren

  • The mesne profits you have received and appropriated since Squire Trevlyn's death.

    Trevlyn Hold

    Mrs. Henry Wood

  • And it's not only what Mr. Aubrey will lose, but what he will be liable to—the mesne profits—sixty thousand pounds.

  • It is very painful for me to mention the subject, Mr. Aubrey; but have you adverted to the mesne profits?

  • Resigned to accept position of Register of Mesne Conveyances, a very important office which he held for several years.

British Dictionary definitions for mesne

mesne

adjective law
  1. intermediate or intervening: used esp of any assignment of property before the lasta mesne assignment
  2. mesne profits rents or profits accruing during the rightful owner's exclusion from his land
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Word Origin

C15: from legal French meien in the middle, mean ³
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 mesne

adj.

mid-15c., "mean;" altered spelling (by French influence) of Anglo-French meen "mean" (Old French meien "middle;" see mean (adj.); also cf. demesne).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper