fief

noun

1. (countable, historical, uncountable)Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service.

   “The chief obligation of a sipahi was to take up residence on his fief and to be prepared at all times to rally, armed for battle, to his banner-holder's flag on the sultan's order. According to the income of his fief, every sipahi had to raise a fixed number of armed horsemen (cebeli), who followed him on campaigns.”

   “Where a vassal kills the brother, son, or grandson of his lord, he should lose his fief on account of it.”

2. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Synonym of estate: any land, when considered as a region over which the owner exercises lordly control.

   “Through the years of my childhood my maternal grandmother remained the one unforgettable presence, the strong country woman ruling over her farm like a medieval lord. On her fief I first opened my eyes to poetry and to the land. […] There was something of the ancient matriarch in her, who had given her life to the ground, who felt that on her fief in southern Luxembourg she stood in the right place.”

3. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)A territory, a domain, an area over which one exercises lordly control, particularly with regard to corporate or governmental bureaucracies.