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Webster 1913 Edition

Mortmain

Mort′mainˊ

,
Noun.
[F.
mort
,
morte
, dead +
main
hand; F.
main-morte
. See
Mortal
, and
Manual
.]
(Law)
Possession of lands or tenements in, or conveyance to, dead hands, or hands that cannot alienate.
☞ The term was originally applied to conveyance of land made to ecclesiastical bodies; afterward to conveyance made to any corporate body.
Burrill.

Webster 1828 Edition

Mortmain

MORT'MAIN

,
Noun.
In law, possession of lands or tenements in dead hands, or hands that cannot alienate. Alienation in mortmain is an alienation of lands or tenements to any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal, particularly to religious houses, by which the estate becomes perpetually inherent in the corporation and unalienable.

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