Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun 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.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To hold as a tenant or be a tenant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To hold or possess as a tenant; occupy.
  • To let out to tenants.
  • To live as a tenant; dwell.
  • A corruption of tenon.
  • noun 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.
  • noun More specifically, one who holds under a superior owner, as a lessee or occupant for rent: used thus as correlative to landlord.
  • noun A defendant in a real action. See action, 8 .
  • noun One who has possession of anyplace; a dweller; an occupant.
  • noun In heraldry, same as supporter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (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.
  • noun One who has possession of any place; a dweller; an occupant.
  • noun by the laws of England, one who holds immediately of the king. According to the feudal system, all lands in England are considered as held immediately or mediately of the king, who is styled lord paramount. Such tenants, however, are considered as having the fee of the lands and permanent possession.
  • noun See under Common.
  • transitive verb To hold, occupy, or possess as a tenant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb occupy as a tenant
  • noun someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else
  • noun a holder of buildings or lands by any kind of title (as ownership or lease)
  • noun any occupant who dwells in a place

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from present participle of tenir, to hold, from Latin tenēre; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested 1325, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt, from Old French tenant, present participle of tenir ("to hold"), from Latin tenēre, present active infinitive of teneō ("hold, keep").

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