escheat

UK: /ɪsˈtʃiːt/ US: (es chēt′)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

es•cheat  (es chēt′), [Law.]
n. 

1. Law the reverting of property to the state or some agency of the state, or, as in England, to the lord of the fee or to the crown, when there is a failure of persons legally qualified to inherit or to claim.
2. Law the right to take property subject to escheat.

v.i. 

3. Law to revert by escheat, as to the crown or the state.

v.t. 

4. Law to make an escheat of;
   confiscate.

• Vulgar Latin *excadēre to fall to a person's share, equivalent. to Latin ex- ex-¹ + cadere to fall (Vulgar Latin cadēre)
• Old French eschete, escheoite, feminine past participle of escheoir
• Middle English eschete 1250–1300

es•cheat′a•ble, adj. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

escheat / ɪsˈtʃiːt/ noun

1. (in England before 1926) the reversion of property to the Crown in the absence of legal heirs
2. (in feudal times) the reversion of property to the feudal lord in the absence of legal heirs or upon outlawry of the tenant
3. the property so reverting

verb

1. to take (land) by escheat or (of land) to revert by escheat

Etymology: 14th Century: from Old French eschete, from escheoir to fall to the lot of, from Late Latin excadere (unattested), from Latin cadere to fall

esˈcheatable adjective

esˈcheatage noun