Definition of "hypothec" [hy•poth•ec]

• In Scotland, a landlord's right over the stocking (cattle, implements, etc.), and crops of his tenant, as security for payment of rent. (noun)
• Everything; the whole lot. (noun)

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• "Scotland the almost insane law of hypothec, which allowed a landlord to pursue his tenant's goods even into the hands of an "innocent holder.""
• "So far then as this action is concerned, there is no difference between a pledge and a hypothec: and indeed whenever a debtor and a creditor agree that certain property of the former shall be the latter's security for his debt, the transaction is called a pledge or a hypothec indifferently."
• "We have also given persons entitled to sue for such recovery a tacit hypothec over the husband's property, but this right is not to give any priority over other hypothecary creditors except where it is the wife herself who sues to recover her dowry; it being in her interest only that we have made this new provision."