Dictionary entry

Feud (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Feud, n. [LL. feudum, feodum prob. of same origin as E. fief. See Fief, Fee.] (Law) A stipendiary estate in land, held of a superior, by service; the right which a vassal or tenant had to the lands or other immovable thing of his lord, to use the same and take the profits thereof hereditarily, rendering to his superior such duties and services as belong to military tenure, etc., the property of the soil always remaining in the lord or superior; a fief; a fee.