Word.ws English Dictionary

mesne lord

mesne lord noun: a lord entitled to rent or feudal obligations from tenants but who himself owes rent or feudal obligations to another.

Noun

mesne lord (plural mesne lords)

  1. (historical) A lord entitled to rent or feudal obligations from tenants but who himself owes rent or feudal obligations to another.
    • Thus all the land in the kingdom is supposed to be holden, mediately or immediately, of the sovereign, who is styled the lord paramount, or above all. Such tenants as held under the crown immediately, when they granted out portions of their lands to inferior persons, became also lords with respect...1767, William Blackstone, “The Rights of Things”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume II, page 60

Forms of mesne lord

pluralmesne lords
alternative formlord mesne

Origin of mesne lord

Distinguishing the nature of the lord as intermediate (Old French mesne, "middle"), particularly as opposed to lords paramount and tenants-in-chief.

Questions about mesne lord

What does mesne lord mean?
Mesne lord means a lord entitled to rent or feudal obligations from tenants but who himself owes rent or feudal obligations to another.
What part of speech is mesne lord?
Mesne lord is a noun.
What is the plural of mesne lord?
The plural of mesne lord is mesne lords.

Words near mesne lord in the dictionary

  1. mesnality
  2. mesnaltie
  3. mesnalties
  4. mesnalty
  5. mesne
  6. mesne lord
  7. mesne lords
  8. mesnes
  9. meso
  10. meso compound
  11. meso isomer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mesne lord (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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