Meaning of mortmain | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The perpetual, inalienable possession of lands by a corporation or non-personal entity such as a church.
   uncountable, usually
2. A strong and inalienable possession.
   literary, uncountable, usually

Examples

“1824, Charter of Incorporation of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, [W]e do hereby grant our especial license and authority unto all and every person […] to grant sell alien and convey in mortmain unto and to the use of the said Society and their successors […]”

“Though in truth it was the law of mortmain […] which originally sent the founders of chantries to seek the king's licence […]”

“[…]; and some part of that influence [of the government], which would otherwise have been possessed as in a sort of mortmain and unalienable domain, returned again to the great ocean from whence it arose, […]”

CEFR level