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aps to other rights of the kindred or the tribe. Survivals of the early odal estates and tenure exist in Orkney and Shetland, where it is usually called by the variant form udal.

master.] A fop; a coxcomb; a ladies' man. Goldsmith. -- Petit serjeanty (Eng. Law), the tenure of lands of the crown, by the service of rendering annually some implement of war, as a bow, an arrow, a sword, a flag, etc. -- Petit treason, formerly, in England, the crime of killing a person to whom the offender owed du…

Held by a doubtful tenure; depending on unknown causes or events; exposed to constant risk; not to be depended on for certainty or stability; uncertain; as, a precarious state of health; precarious fortunes. "Intervals of partial and precarious liberty." Macaulay.

of life. See Mathematics. Davies & Peck (Math. Dict. ) -- Pure villenage (Feudal Law), a tenure of lands by uncertain services at the will of the lord. Blackstone.

(Fr. & Canadian Law) A feudal tenure of lands by one who has no privileges of nobility, but is permitted to discharge all his obligations to his feudal lord or superior by a payment of rent in money or kind and without rendering any personal services.

Tenure of lands of the crown by an honorary kind of service not due to any lord, but to the king only. [Written also serjeanty.] Grand sergeanty, a particular kind of tenure by which the tenant was bound to do some special honorary service to the king in person, as to carry his banner, his sword, or the like. Tomlins.…

A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated socage, as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent. [Written also soccage.]

Tenure by socage.

Formerly, in Ireland, a kind of servile tenure which subjected the tenant to maintain his chieftain gratuitously whenever he wished to indulge in a revel. Spenser.

nting of lands by inferior lords to their dependents, to be held by themselves by feudal tenure. Craig.

To examine and ascertain, as the boundaries and royalties of a manor, the tenure of the tenants, and the rent and value of the same. [Eng.] Jacob (Law Dict.).

In Ireland, a tenure of family lands by which the proprietor had only a life estate, to which he was admitted by election.

A holding, or a mode of holding, an estate; tenure; the temporary possession of what belongs to another.

d is a tenement, the possessor of it a "tenant," and the manner of possession is called "tenure." Blackstone.

Tenancy or tenure under a tenant or lessee; the tenure of an undertenant.

The quality or tenure of the fee held by a vavasor; also, the lands held by a vavasor.

One who holds lands by a base, or servile, tenure, or in villenage; a feudal tenant of the lowest class, a bondman or servant. [In this sense written also villan, and villein.] If any of my ansectors was a tenant, and a servant, and held his lands as a villain to his lord, his posterity also must do so, though accident…

The state of a villain, or serf; base servitude; tenure on condition of doing the meanest services for the lord. [In this sense written also villenage, and villeinage.] I speak even now as if sin were condemned in a perpetual villanage, never to be manumitted. Milton. Some faint traces of villanage were detected by the…

e and protection of a ward; guardianship; right of guardianship. Wardship is incident to tenure in socage. Blackstone.