estate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun everything you own; all of your assets (whether real property or personal property) and liabilities
  2. noun extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use
    land; demesne; landed estate; acres.
    • the family owned a large estate on Long Island
  3. noun a major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country (especially in the United Kingdom) and formerly possessing distinct political rights
    the three estates; estate of the realm.

WordNet

Es*tate" noun
Etymology
OF. estat, F. état, L. status, fr. stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. State.
Definitions
  1. Settled condition or form of existence; state; condition or circumstances of life or of any person; situation. "When I came to man's estate." Shak.
    Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Romans xii. 16.
  2. Social standing or rank; quality; dignity.
    God hath imprinted his authority in several parts, upon several estates of men. Jer. Taylor.
  3. A person of high rank. Obs.
    She's a duchess, a great estate. Latimer.
    Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. Mark vi. 21.
  4. A property which a person possesses; a fortune; possessions, esp. property in land; also, property of all kinds which a person leaves to be divided at his death.
    See what a vast estate he left his son. Dryden.
  5. The state; the general body politic; the common-wealth; the general interest; state affairs. Obs.
    I call matters of estate not only the parts of sovereignty, but whatsoever . . . concerneth manifestly any great portion of people. Bacon.
  6. pl. The great classes or orders of a community or state (as the clergy, the nobility, and the commonalty of England) or their representatives who administer the government; as, the estates of the realm (England), which are (1) the lords spiritual, (2) the lords temporal, (3) the commons.
  7. (Law) The degree, quality, nature, and extent of one's interest in, or ownership of, lands, tenements, etc.; as, an estate for life, for years, at will, etc. Abbott.
Es*tate" transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To establish. Obs. Beau. & Fl.
  2. Tom settle as a fortune. Archaic Shak.
  3. To endow with an estate. Archaic
    Then would I . . . Estate them with large land and territory. Tennyson.

Webster 1913