noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The legal right of a landlord to seize the property of a tenant in the event of nonpayment of rent. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the seizure and holding of property as security for payment of a debt or satisfaction of a claim wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

annexationattachmentdamagesdistressdistresseminent domain

Etymology

From distrain, on the model of such pairs as constrain, constraint and restrain, restraint.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.