terre-tenant

English

Alternative forms

ter-tenant

Etymology

From French terre (“earth, land”) + tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”).

Noun

terre-tenant (plural terre-tenants)

(law) One who has the actual possession of land; the occupant.
(law) The owner of land acquired from a judgment debtor.
(law) The owner of land subject to a rentcharge.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “terre-tenant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)