messuage

American  

[mes-wij] / ˈmɛs wɪdʒ /

noun

Law.

1. a dwelling house with its adjacent buildings and the lands appropriated to the use of the household.

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messuage British  

/ ˈmɛswɪdʒ /

noun

1. property law a dwelling house together with its outbuildings, curtilage, and the adjacent land appropriated to its use

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Etymology

Origin of messuage

1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, misreading ( n taken as u ) of Old French mesnage ménage ( def. )

Example Sentences

This stone messuage, owned by rich & widowed Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, castellated like an English royal residence of the time of William the Conqueror, is at Purchase, N. Y. "Land of the Free."

From Time Magazine Archive

A free tenant had a messuage and 33/4 acres, the rent of which was 3s. a year.

From A Short History of English Agriculture by Curtler, W. H. R. (William Henry Ricketts)

In 1310, Henry Balduyne sold to Walter de Halfenaked one messuage, two acres of arable, and two acres of meadow, in Washington and Sullington.

From Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George

Grant by John Dursley, citizen and armorer of London, to William Serjaunt Taverner, of Stanes, and another, of a messuage, &c. in Westminster.

From Notes and Queries, Number 78, April 26, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by Bell, George

I happened to be passing the demesne," I say, "when I noticed a rather serious item of dilapidation," or "A word with you about the messuage; it looks a trifle off colour to-day.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-04-07 by Seaman, Owen, Sir