Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To invest with a feudal estate or fee.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In law, to give a feud to; hence, to invest with a fee; give any corporeal hereditament to in fee simple or fee tail.
- Figuratively, to surrender or give up.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb (Law) To give a feud, or right in land, to; to invest with a fief or fee; to invest (any one) with a freehold estate by the process of feoffment.
- transitive verb obsolete To give in vassalage; to make subservient.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To put (a person) in legal possession of a freehold interest; to transfer a fief to.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb put in possession of land in exchange for a pledge of service, in feudal society
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Then bade the king enfeoff Siegfried, the youth, with land and castles, as he himself had done.
The Nibelungenlied 2007
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Then bade the king enfeoff Siegfried, the youth, with land and castles, as he himself had done.
The Nibelungenlied Daniel Bussier Shumway
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Now the army officers are counting up those who have merits and think that the world is insufficient to enfeoff them all, so they fear that for a
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The possessions which pertain to the support of my Archbishopric, I will not sell, nor give away, nor pledge, nor re-enfeoff, nor alienate in any way, without first consulting the Roman Pontiff.
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The suggestion of such a commutation no doubt arose in connexion with the Church baronies, whose holders would find many reasons against personal service in the field, especially in the prohibition of the canon law, and who in most cases preferred not to enfeoff on their lands knights enough to meet their military obligations to the king.
The History of England from the Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066-1216) George Burton Adams 1888
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Colpoys agreed with the warden and fellows of Winchester College to enfeoff them of one messuage, four tofts, twenty acres of arable land, and eighteen acres of meadow, to the intent that they should on the 7th day of April in every year celebrate the obits of Alice his deceased wife, of John Giles and Maud his wife (her parents), of Sir
John Keble's Parishes Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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With the dower-lands to enfeoff them that we gave for bridal right
The Lay of the Cid ca. 1043-1099 Cid 1071
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Also, that they enfeoff William his son; in the manor of BevUham, with the hundred of Shoosewell, with re - mainder (in default of heirs male) to John, his son and heir; and in default, to Thomas his son, and his heirs male, with remainder to his right heirs.
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Majesty has always disliked, figuring out the one whom all your courtiers know [you dislike] the very most, and enfeoff him first in order to show your courtiers [that you really mean them well]. "
smerus commented on the word enfeoff
enfeoff: to invest with a fief
January 29, 2007