Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Tenement
Ten′e-ment
,Noun.
1.
(Feud. Law)
That which is held of another by service; property which one holds of a lord or proprietor in consideration of some military or pecuniary service; fief; fee.
2.
(Common Law)
Any species of permanent property that may be held, so as to create a tenancy, as lands, houses, rents, commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of common, a peerage, and the like; – called also
free tenements
or frank tenements
. The thing held is a
tenement
, the possessor of it a “tenant,” and the manner of possession is called “tenure.” Blackstone.
3.
A dwelling house; a building for a habitation; also, an apartment, or suite of rooms, in a building, used by one family; often, a house erected to be rented.
4.
Fig.: Dwelling; abode; habitation.
Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no
tenement
, unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece? Locke.