Estover
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An allowance provided from an estate for a person's support; an allowance of wood for repairs, firewood and fencing. archaic, uncountable, usually
"Your husband was seised of only one carucate of land, to which was appurtenant house-bote and hay-bote to be taken in that wood for burning at only one hearth in his chief messuage ; and if you by reason of your third part could in that wood take house-bote and hay-bote at your pleasure, there would be taken house-bote and hay-bote and fuel for two hearths, whereas they were previously appendant to only one hearth: wherefore, estovers for house-bote &c. you can not have; and we paray judgment."
- 2 Estovers. uncountable, usually
Example
More examples"Your husband was seised of only one carucate of land, to which was appurtenant house-bote and hay-bote to be taken in that wood for burning at only one hearth in his chief messuage ; and if you by reason of your third part could in that wood take house-bote and hay-bote at your pleasure, there would be taken house-bote and hay-bote and fuel for two hearths, whereas they were previously appendant to only one hearth: wherefore, estovers for house-bote &c. you can not have; and we paray judgment."
Etymology
From Middle English estovers pl, from Old French estover (“obligation”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.