Word.ws English Dictionary

burgage

/ˈbɜːɡɪd͡ʒ/US/ˈbɝɡɪd͡ʒ/

burgage noun: a medieval tenure in socage under which property in England and Scotland was held under the king or a lord of a town and was maintained for a yearly rent or for rendering an inferior service (not knight's service) such as watching and warding.

Noun

burgage (countable and uncountable, plural burgages)

  1. (historical) A medieval tenure in socage under which property in England and Scotland was held under the king or a lord of a town and was maintained for a yearly rent or for rendering an inferior service (not knight's service) such as watching and warding.
    • If any burgess be appealed of a plea whereon wager of battle may issue by a villein or outdweller , let him defend himself by oath, that is to say by the 36 men, unless he is challenged in respect of a crime that the law requires him to defend by battle, in no case ought a burgess to fight against...1907, Antiquities of Sunderland and Its Vicinity - Volumes 5-7, page 73
    • Thomas Singleton, bailiff of the escheatery of the town of Lancaster, rendered account in 1441 of £8 4s. 7d. due from ancient rents and various burgages and plats of land which had escheated to the king as duke from various causes.1914, “Lonsdale Hundred (North of the Sands)”, in William Farrer, J. Brownbill, editors, Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, volume 8, Constable and Company, page 39

Forms of burgage

pluralburgages

Origin of burgage

Inherited from Middle English burgage, from Old French bourgage and Medieval Latin burgāgium; equivalent to burg + -age.

Questions about burgage

What does burgage mean?
Burgage means a medieval tenure in socage under which property in England and Scotland was held under the king or a lord of a town and was maintained for a yearly rent or for rendering an inferior service (not knight's service) such as watching and warding.
What part of speech is burgage?
Burgage is a noun.
How do you pronounce burgage?
Burgage is pronounced /ˈbɝɡɪd͡ʒ/ (US).
What is the plural of burgage?
The plural of burgage is burgages.

Words near burgage in the dictionary

  1. burflower tree
  2. Burfoot
  3. Burford
  4. Burfords
  5. burg
  6. burgage
  7. burgages
  8. Burgalese
  9. burgall
  10. burgalls
  11. burgamot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burgage (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-burgage.wav.

Cite this entry: “burgage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burgage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.