escheat

/ɪsˈt͡ʃiːt/

escheat noun: the return, conversion, or vesting of property of a deceased person or closed business to the government (originally to a feudal lord) where there are no legal heirs or claimants. It is known as bona vacantia in the United Kingdom.

Noun

escheat (countable and uncountable, plural escheats)

The return, conversion, or vesting of property of a deceased person or closed business to the government (originally to a feudal lord) where there are no legal heirs or claimants. It is known as bona vacantia in the United Kingdom.
The property so reverted.
(obsolete) Plunder, booty.
- Approching, with bold words and bitter threat, / Bad that same boaster, as he mote, on high / To leaue to him that Lady for excheat, / Or bide him battell without further treat.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
That which falls to one; a reversion or return.
- And by my ruines thinkes to make them great: / To make one great by others losse, is bad excheat1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25

Verb

escheat (third-person singular simple present escheats, present participle escheating, simple past and past participle escheated)

(transitive) To put (land, property) in escheat; to confiscate.
- Arms are very rigidly controlled in Scotland by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. […] Under an Act of 1592, Lyon King of Arms can escheat to the Sovereign all goods unlawfully displaying arms.1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 477
- Failure to perform duties opened the culprit to charges of ‘felony’ (felonia), providing grounds for the king to escheat the fief.2016, Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, Penguin, published 2017, page 329
(intransitive) To revert, convert, or vest ownership to the government or lord because its previous owner died without an heir or a business closed and no one claims the assets.

escheat meaning in Tamil

escheat in Tamil

அரசு உறு பொருள், இறையுறு சொத்து

Forms of escheat

Noun
plural	escheats
Verb
third-person singular present	escheats
present participle	escheating
past participle	escheated
past	escheated

Origin of escheat

From Middle English escheat, achete, eschete (“the reversion or conversion of property to the government”), from Anglo-Norman eschete and Old French eschet, escheit, escheoit (“that which falls to one”), past participle of escheoir (“to fall”) (modern French échoir), from Late Latin *excadēre (“fall away, fall out”), from (Latin) ex- + cadere (“fall”). Doublet of cheat.

Words formed from escheat

Words that rhyme with escheat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about escheat

What does escheat mean?: Escheat means the return, conversion, or vesting of property of a deceased person or closed business to the government (originally to a feudal lord) where there are no legal heirs or claimants. It is known as bona vacantia in the United Kingdom.
What is escheat in Tamil?: Escheat in Tamil is அரசு உறு பொருள், இறையுறு சொத்து. See Escheat meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is escheat?: Escheat can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce escheat?: Escheat is pronounced /ɪsˈt͡ʃiːt/.
What is the plural of escheat?: The plural of escheat is escheats.

Words near escheat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: escheat (page history and authors); escheat (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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