Curtilage
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The area immediately surrounding a house, especially dooryard areas and sometimes including closely associated buildings and structures.
"The scope of the curtilage is determined by considering the proximity to the home, whether it is fenced or otherwise enclosed, the nature of the use of the area, and the efforts the resident takes to screen the area from public view."
- 2 the enclosed land around a house or other building wordnet
Example
More examples"The scope of the curtilage is determined by considering the proximity to the home, whether it is fenced or otherwise enclosed, the nature of the use of the area, and the efforts the resident takes to screen the area from public view."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English curtylage and Anglo-Norman, from Old French cortillage, curtillage, from cortil (“court, courtyard”), from Latin cortis (“court”); see court. Compare courtledge.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.