DEMESNE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does demesne mean? 

• DEMESNE (noun)
  The noun DEMESNE has 2 senses:

1. extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use

2. territory over which rule or control is exercised

  Familiarity information: DEMESNE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEMESNE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

acres; demesne; estate; land; landed estate

Context example:

the family owned a large estate on Long Island

Hypernyms ("demesne" is a kind of...):

immovable; real estate; real property; realty (property consisting of houses and land)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "demesne"):

entail (land received by fee tail)

plantation (an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas))

hacienda (a large estate in Spanish-speaking countries)

seigneury; seigniory; signory (the estate of a seigneur)

manor (the landed estate of a lord (including the house on it))

Crown land (land that belongs to the Crown)

countryseat (an estate in the country)

barony (the estate of a baron)

feoff; fief (a piece of land held under the feudal system)

homestead (land acquired from the United States public lands by filing a record and living on and cultivating it under the homestead law)

smallholding (a piece of land under 50 acres that is sold or let to someone for cultivation)

leasehold (land or property held under a lease)

glebe (plot of land belonging to an English parish church or an ecclesiastical office)

freehold (an estate held in fee simple or for life)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Territory over which rule or control is exercised

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

demesne; domain; land

Context example:

he made it the law of the land

Hypernyms ("demesne" is a kind of...):

region (a large indefinite location on the surface of the Earth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "demesne"):

archduchy (the domain controlled by an archduke or archduchess)

suzerainty (the domain of a suzerain)

sheikdom; sheikhdom (the domain ruled by a sheik)

princedom; principality (territory ruled by a prince)

kingdom; realm (the domain ruled by a king or queen)

khanate (the realm of a khan)

viscounty (the domain controlled by a viscount or viscountess)

grand duchy (the domain controlled by a grand duke or grand duchess)

empire; imperium (the domain ruled by an emperor or empress; the region over which imperial dominion is exercised)

emirate (the domain controlled by an emir)

earldom (the domain controlled by an earl or count or countess)

duchy; dukedom (the domain controlled by a duke or duchess)

barony (the domain of a baron)

fiefdom (the domain controlled by a feudal lord)

Holonyms ("demesne" is a part of...):

country; land; state (the territory occupied by a nation)

 Context examples 

A small green court was the whole of its demesne in front; and a neat wicket gate admitted them into it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

And over this great demesne Buck ruled.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Next to him sat Hordle John, and beside him three other rough unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair—free laborers from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the heart of the royal demesne.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

However, this is an extremity to which the prince is seldom driven, neither indeed is he willing to put it in execution; nor dare his ministers advise him to an action, which, as it would render them odious to the people, so it would be a great damage to their own estates, which all lie below; for the island is the king’s demesne.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The afforestation of the district, however, and its conversion into a royal demesne had clipped off a large section of his estate, while other parts had been confiscated as a punishment for his supposed complicity in an abortive Saxon rising.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)