Search Result for "fief": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a piece of land held under the feudal system;
[syn: fief, feoff]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Fief \Fief\, n. [F. fief; of German origin, and the same word as E. fee. See Fee, and cf. Feud, a tief.] (Law) An estate held of a superior on condition of military service; a fee; a feud. See under Benefice, n., 2. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

fief n 1: a piece of land held under the feudal system [syn: fief, feoff]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

24 Moby Thesaurus words for "fief": copyhold, equitable estate, estate at sufferance, estate for life, estate for years, estate in expectancy, estate in fee, estate in possession, estate tail, fee, fee simple, fee tail, feod, feodum, feud, feudal estate, lease, leasehold, legal estate, paramount estate, particular estate, remainder, reversion, vested estate
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

FIEF, or FEUD. In its origin, a fief was a district of country allotted to one of the chiefs who invaded the Roman empire, as a stipend or reward; with a condition annexed that the possessor should do service faithfully both at home and in the wars, to him by whom it was given. The law of fiefs supposed that originally all lands belonged to lords, who had had the generosity to abandon them to others, from whom the actual possessors derive their rights upon the sole reservation of certain services more or less onerous as a sign of superiority. To this superiority was added that which gives the right of dispensing justice, a right which was originally attached to all fiefs, and conferred upon those who possessed it, the most eminent part of public power. Henrion de Pansey, Pouvoir, Municipal; 2 Bl. Com. 45 Encyclopedie, h.t.; Merl. Rep. h.t.