Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A prizing; rating; valuing.
  • noun In early Eng. and French law, a seizure or asserted right of seizure by way of exaction or requisition for the use of the crown.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A right belonging to the crown of England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more, -- one before and one behind the mast. By charter of Edward I. butlerage was substituted for this.
  • noun The share of merchandise taken as lawful prize at sea which belongs to the king or admiral.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun law, UK, obsolete A right belonging to the crown of England, of taking two tuns of wine from every ship importing twenty tuns or more: one before and one behind the mast.
  • noun obsolete The share of merchandise taken as lawful prize at sea which belongs to the king or admiral.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French prisage a praising, valuing, taxing; compare Latin prisagium prisage; or from French prise a taking, capture, prize. See prize.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "All of these (wines) were made even more expensive by the two casks from each imported cargo that were forfeit to the King as prisage, or duty."

    --Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 78

    January 8, 2017