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Definition of "tenant" []

  • One that pays rent to use or occupy land, a building, or other property owned by another. (noun)
  • A dweller in a place; an occupant. (noun)
  • Law One who holds or possesses lands, tenements, or sometimes personal property by any kind of title. (noun)
  • To hold as a tenant or be a tenant. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "tenant" in a sentence
  • "_In theory_, the tenant in chief could not sell his land; he could sublet it to a _mesne tenant_, who stood to himself precisely in the same relation as he -- the tenant _in capite_ -- stood to the sovereign, the mesne tenant in his turn being bound to render certain _services_ to his over lord, and liable to forfeit his _lease_ -- for in theory it was that -- if certain contingencies happened."
  • "Jnyirwedpe imdi/cendirt defendant pleads to part npft'-temttrt, and fhews who is tenant to the other part; that demandant had entered; and replication to noA-tenare, that the tenant was tenant* &c.; demarrer to the refidoe; judgment for the de - mandant, for that the lad plea was reptignant, and alfo for that the time of thst entry of demandant is not ailedged, |."
  • ""This is a sum of money allowed for College chambers to the former occupier, in consideration of repairs or fitting up, and fur - niture, and is frequently transferred from one tenant to another in succession, a tenant* being answerable to a person so repairing or fitting up at two or three removes. —"