tenant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that pays rent to use or occupy land, a building, or other property owned by another.
2. n. A dweller in a place; an occupant.
3. n. Law One who holds or possesses lands, tenements, or sometimes personal property by any kind of title.
4. v. To hold as a tenant or be a tenant.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In law: A person who holds real property by private ownership, by any kind of title, either in fee, for life, for years, or at will. The term is sometimes used in reference to interests in pure personalty, as when we speak of one as tenant for life of a fund.
2. n. More specifically, one who holds under a superior owner, as a lessee or occupant for rent: used thus as correlative to landlord.
3. n. A defendant in a real action. See action, 8 .
4. n. One who has possession of anyplace; a dweller; an occupant.
5. n. In heraldry, same as supporter. A distinction has been made between these terms by alleging that the tenant holds the shield as if keeping it upright, as is usual with modern supporters, but does not support its weight or lift it. (Compare supporter.) Some writers, following the French heralds, use tenant for a human figure holding or flanking the shield, reserving supporter for an animal. Also tenent.
6. To hold or possess as a tenant; occupy.
7. To let out to tenants.
8. To live as a tenant; dwell.
9. A corruption of tenon.

Wiktionary

1. n. One who pays a fee (rent) in return for the use of land, buildings, or other property owned by others.
2. v. To hold as, or be, a tenant.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Law) One who holds or possesses lands, or other real estate, by any kind of right, whether in fee simple, in common, in severalty, for life, for years, or at will; also, one who has the occupation or temporary possession of lands or tenements the title of which is in another; -- correlative to landlord. See Citation from Blackstone, under tenement, 2.
2. n. One who has possession of any place; a dweller; an occupant.
3. v. To hold, occupy, or possess as a tenant.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. occupy as a tenant
2. n. someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else
3. n. a holder of buildings or lands by any kind of title (as ownership or lease)
4. n. any occupant who dwells in a place