Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Reversion of land held under feudal tenure to the manor in the absence of legal heirs or claimants.
- noun Reversion of property to the state in the absence of legal heirs or claimants.
- noun Property that has reverted to the state when no legal heirs or claimants exist.
- intransitive & transitive verb To revert or cause to revert by escheat.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To suffer escheat; revert or fall back by escheat.
- To divest of an estate by confiscation: as, he was escheated of his lands in Scotland.
- To confiscate; forfeit.
- noun The reverting or falling back of lands or tenements to the lord of the fee or to the state, whether through failure of heirs or (formerly) through the corruption of the blood of the tenant by his having been attainted, or by forfeiture for treason.
- noun In England, the place or circuit within which the king or lord is entitled to escheats.
- noun A writ to recover escheats from the person in possession.
- noun The possessions which fall to the lord or state by escheat.
- noun That which falls to one; a reversion or return.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb (Law) To revert, or become forfeited, to the lord, the crown, or the State, as lands by the failure of persons entitled to hold the same, or by forfeiture.
- transitive verb (Law) To forfeit.
- noun (Feud. & Eng. Law) The falling back or reversion of lands, by some casualty or accident, to the lord of the fee, in consequence of the extinction of the blood of the tenant, which may happen by his dying without heirs, and formerly might happen by corruption of blood, that is, by reason of a felony or attainder.
- noun (U. S. Law) The reverting of real property to the State, as original and ultimate proprietor, by reason of a failure of persons legally entitled to hold the same.
- noun A writ, now abolished, to recover escheats from the person in possession.
- noun Lands which fall to the lord or the State by escheat.
- noun That which falls to one; a reversion or return.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun law The
return ofproperty of adeceased person to thestate (originally to afeudal lord ) where there are nolegal heirs orclaimants . - noun law The property so
reverted . - noun obsolete
Plunder ,booty . - verb to revert by this process
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the property that reverts to the state
- noun a reversion to the state (as the ultimate owner of property) in the absence of legal heirs
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Yesterday's term was escheat, which is defined as:
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Yesterday's term was escheat, which is defined as:
Define That Term #16 2006
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Because of a practice called escheat, however, that assumption could end up turning your financial life upside down.
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So, they might not get everything they're entitled to, and the unclaimed assets will eventually revert, or "escheat," to the state.
The Mess They Left 2009
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In the United States, according to Webster, the word "escheat" means "the falling or passing of lands and tenements to the State through failure of heirs or forfeiture, or in cases where no owner is found."
The History of Escheats Blackwell Pierce 1955
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So they are trying to confiscate it under the medieval concept of "escheat".
Cold Fury 2010
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The legal term is called escheat, meaning handing over property to the state.
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1 Escheat was formerly divided under the heads of escheat propter defectum sanguinis (failure of heirs) and escheat propter delictum tenentis (for the felony of the tenant): the latter kind of escheat, however, has, together with forfeiture for the same causes, been abolished in England by 33 and 34 Vict. c 23.
The History of Escheats Blackwell Pierce 1955
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When a noble died, according to the law of escheat, so also died his right to his estates—his heirs could not inherit anything; it all reverted to the state, to their Emperor.
Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010
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When a noble died, according to the law of escheat, so also died his right to his estates—his heirs could not inherit anything; it all reverted to the state, to their Emperor.
Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010
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