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A tenant or vassal who held his lands of a superior on condition of feudal service; the tenant of a feud or fief. The grantee . . . was styled the feudatory or vassal. Blackstone. [He] had for feudatories great princes. J. H. Newman.

One who enjoys liberty, or who is not subject to the will of another; one not a slave or vassal.

ghted line without a float. -- Ground annual (Scots Law), an estate created in land by a vassal who instead of selling his land outright reserves an annual ground rent, which becomes a perpetual charge upon the land. -- Ground ash. (Bot.) See Groutweed. -- Ground bailiff (Mining), a superintendent of mines. Simmonds…

of persons. [Now Low or Humorous] The wisdom of a heap of learned men. Chaucer. A heap of vassals and slaves. Bacon. He had heaps of friends. W.Black.

, on receiving investiture of fee, or coming to it by succession, that he was his man, or vassal; profession of fealty to a sovereign.

One who does homage, or holds land of another by homage; a vassal. Bacon.

To reduce to bondage or servitude; to make a thrall, slave, vassal, or captive of; to enslave. She soothes, but never can inthrall my mind. Prior.

Act of inthralling, or state of being inthralled; servitude; bondage; vassalage.

s, customs, morals, a law, an abuse. All men inveighed against him; all men, except court vassals, opposed him. Milton. The artificial life against which we inveighed. Hawthorne.

or master; bound by a feudal tenure; obliged to be faithful and loyal to a superior, as a vassal to his lord; faithful; loyal; as, a liege man; a liege subject.

An adult male servant; also, a vassal; a subject. Like master, like man. Old Proverb. The vassal, or tenant, kneeling, ungirt, uncovered, and holding up his hands between those of his lord, professed that he did become his man from that day forth, of life, limb, and earthly honor. Blackstone.

A sum paid to a lord as a pecuniary compensation for killing his man (that is, his vassal, servant, or tenant). Spelman.

Homage or service rendered to a superior, as to a lord; vassalage. [Obs. or Scots Law] Jamieson.

ty of, with a person or thing previously known; to recover or recall knowledge of. Speak, vassal; recognize thy sovereign queen. Harte.

nt or absolute control of another; to vanquish. He subjugated a king, and called him his "vassal." Baker.

Formerly, a collection of acknowledgments of the vassals or tenants of a lordship, containing the rents and services they owed to the lord, and the like.

The vassal or tenant of a baron; one who held under a baron, and who also had tenants under him; one in dignity next to a baron; a title of dignity next to a baron. Burrill. "A worthy vavasour." Chaucer. [Also written vavasour, vavassor, valvasor, etc.] Vavasours subdivide again to vassals, exchanging land and cattle,…

id of a man killed, partly to the king for the loss of a subject, partly to the lord of a vassal, and partly to the next of kin. It was paid by the murderer. [Written also weregeld, weregelt, etc.] Blackstone.