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Webster 1913 Edition


Tenement

Ten′e-ment

,
Noun.
[OF.
tenement
a holding, a fief, F.
tènement
, LL.
tenementum
, fr. L.
tenere
to hold. See
Tenant
.]
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.

Definition 2024


tenement

tenement

See also: tènement

English

Noun

tenement (plural tenements)

  1. a building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one.
  2. (law) any form of property that is held by one person from another, rather than being owned.
    The island of Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark.
  3. (figuratively) Dwelling; abode; habitation.
    • John Locke
      Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?

Synonyms

Derived terms

  • servient tenement

Translations

See also

References

  • tenement in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Old French

Etymology

Medieval Latin tenementum, from Latin verb teneō. See the verb tenir.

Noun

tenement m (oblique plural tenemenz or tenementz, nominative singular tenemenz or tenementz, nominative plural tenement)

  1. holding (of land)

Descendants