Word.ws English Dictionary

escheats

escheats is the plural of escheat.

escheats is the third-person singular simple present indicative of escheat.

Meaning of escheat

Noun

escheat (countable and uncountable, plural escheats)

  1. 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.
  2. The property so reverted.
  3. (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
  4. 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

See all 6 meanings of escheat

Questions about escheats

What is escheats the plural of?
Escheats is the plural of escheat.

Words near escheats in the dictionary

  1. escheatments
  2. escheator
  3. escheators
  4. escheatorship
  5. escheatorships
  6. escheats
  7. eschel
  8. Eschel blue
  9. eschels
  10. Eschenmoser fragmentation
  11. Eschenmoser fragmentations

Source and license

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