1. A right to land given to a person in exchange for service to be performed.
2. Scots law. Land held by a vassal in return for an annual payment in money, crops, or services (called feu duty). • This type of tenure was abolished in Scotland in 2000.
3. Scots law. A perpetual grant of land to be held in exchange for grain or money.
4. A perpetual lease for a fixed rent.
5. A piece of land held under a perpetual lease for a fixed rent. — Also spelled few. See FEE(2). — feu, vb. — feu, adj.
“Feu; in Latin feudum, was used to denote the feudal-holding, where the service was purely military; but the term has been used in Scotland in contradistinction to ward-holding, the military tenure of this country … for, even in the purest ages of the military system, innumerable instances are to be found of grants of land in the feudal form, where the vassal annually delivered victual, or performed agricultural services to his superior.” William Bell, Bell’s Dictionary and Digest of the Law of Scotland 456 (George Watson ed., 7th ed. 1890).
feu, vb. Scots law. To grant (land) by feu.
