Word.ws English Dictionary

knight-service

knight-service is the alternative form of knight service.

Meaning of knight service

Noun

knight service (uncountable)

  1. (historical) The military service a knight owed to his chief lord as a condition of holding title to his lands and rank.
    • Land became fully devisable with the abolition of knight-service in 1660, but magnates continued to inherit property which was tied up in strict settlements, giving the current representative of the family no more than a life-tenancy.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 585
  2. (historical, inexact) Synonym of knight's fee, the system of land tenure based on such service.
    Synonyms:
    knight's fee

Questions about knight-service

What is knight-service the alternative form of?
Knight-service is the alternative form of knight service.

Words near knight-service in the dictionary

  1. Knight-Darwin law
  2. knight-errant
  3. knight-errantries
  4. knight-errantry
  5. knight-erratic
  6. knight-service
  7. knightable
  8. knightage
  9. knightages
  10. Knightdale
  11. knightdom

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knight-service (page history and authors); knight service (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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