escheat

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The return of property of a deceased person to the state (originally to a feudal lord) where there are no legal heirs or claimants.
2. (countable, uncountable)The property so reverted.
3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Plunder, booty.

   “Approching, with bold words and bitter threat, / Bad that same boaster, as he mote, on high / To leaue to him that Lady for excheat, / Or bide him battell without further treat.”

4. (countable, uncountable)That which falls to one; a reversion or return.

   “And by my ruines thinkes to make them great: / To make one great by others losse, is bad excheat”

verb

1. (transitive)To put (land, property) in escheat; to confiscate.

   “Arms are very rigidly controlled in Scotland by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. […] Under an Act of 1592, Lyon King of Arms can escheat to the Sovereign all goods unlawfully displaying arms.”

   “Failure to perform duties opened the culprit to charges of ‘felony’ (felonia), providing grounds for the king to escheat the fief.”

2. (intransitive)To revert to a state or lord because its previous owner died without an heir.