Definition

1. Noun:
   • A piece of land held under the feudal system: A "fief" is a grant of land, typically from a lord to a vassal, in exchange for loyalty and service. The vassal who held the fief was called a "feudal tenant" or "vassal."

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The knight received a fief from the king in return for his military service.
  • Managing the fief included collecting taxes from the peasants who lived and worked on the land.

Advanced Usage

• "To hold something in fief": To possess or control something as if it were a feudal grant, implying conditional ownership or authority.
  • The local governor seemed to hold the province in fief, answering only to the distant emperor.

Variants and Related Words

• Fiefdom (n): The estate or domain of a feudal lord; often used metaphorically to describe an area or sphere of control.
  • The manager treated the sales department as his personal fiefdom.
• Feudal (adj): Relating to the medieval system of landholding and social organization based on fiefs.
• Feoff (n): An archaic variant spelling of "fief."

Synonyms

• Feud: An archaic term for a fief.
• Fee: In historical legal context, an inherited estate of land.
• Estate: A large area of land owned by one person or organization.
• Manor: The house and lands of a lord, often central to a fief.

Related Phrases

• "Fief and fee": A historical legal phrase referring to the terms of land tenure.
• "To enfeoff" (verb, archaic): To grant a fief to someone; to invest with a feudal estate.
  • The lord agreed to enfeoff his loyal knight with the lands bordering the forest.

Noun

1. a piece of land held under the feudal system