What does "estate" mean?
Estate: 2. Social standing or rank; quality; dignity. God hath imprinted his authority in several parts, upon several estates of men. Jer. Taylor.
Additional senses
- 2.A person of high rank. [Obs.] She's a duchess, a great estate. Latimer. Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. Mark vi.
- 3.4. A property which a person possesses; a fortune; possessions, esp. property in land; also, property of all kinds which a person leaves to be divided at his death. See what a vast estate he left his son. Dryden.
- 4.The state; the general body politic; the common-wealth; the general interest; state affairs. [Obs.] I call matters of estate not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever . . . concerneth manifestly any great portion of people. Bacon.
- 5.pl. The great classes or orders of a community or state (as the clergy, the nobility, and the commonalty of England) or their representatives who administer the government; as, the estates of the realm (England), which are (1) the lords spiritual, (2) the lords temporal, (3) the commons.
- 6.(Law) The degree, quality, nature, and extent of one's interest in, or ownership of, lands, tenements, etc.; as, an estate for life, for years, at will, etc. Abbott. The fourth estate, a name often given to the public press.
- 7.To establish. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
- 8.Tom settle as a fortune. [Archaic] Shak.
- 9.To endow with an estate. [Archaic] Then would I . . . Estate them with large land and territory. Tennyson.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00