escrow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Money, property, a deed, or a bond put into the custody of a third party for delivery to a grantee only after the fulfillment of the conditions specified.
2. v. To place in escrow.
3. idiom. in escrow In trust as an escrow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In law, a writing fully executed by the parties, but put into the custody of a third person to hold until the fulfilment of some condition, when it is to be delivered to the grantee. Not until such delivery does it take effect as a deed or binding contract, and then it ceases to be called an escrow. But the word deed is often applied in a loose way to the writing from the time of its execution, in anticipation of its becoming the deed of the party by ultimate delivery.
2. n. The conditional execution and deposit of an instrument in such way.
3. n. The custody of a writing so deposited.

Wiktionary

1. n. law A written instrument, such as a deed, temporarily deposited with a neutral third party (the Escrow agent), by the agreement of two parties to a valid contract. The escrow agent will deliver the document to the benefited party when the conditions of the contract have been met. The depositor has no control over the instrument in escrow.
2. n. law In common law, escrow applied to the deposits only of instruments for conveyance of land, but it now applies to all instruments so deposited.
3. n. law Money or other property so deposited is also loosely referred to as escrow.
4. n. The state of property deposited with an escrow agent.
5. v. To place in escrow.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Law) A deed, bond, or other written engagement, delivered to a third person, to be held by him till some act is done or some condition is performed, and then to be by him delivered to the grantee.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a written agreement (or property or money) delivered to a third party or put in trust by one party to a contract to be returned after fulfillment of some condition