gavelkind
/ˈɡav(ə)lkʌɪnd
/noun [mass noun] historical
A system of inheritance in which a deceased person’s land is divided equally among all male heirs.Only in Kent and in Wales did the custom of gavelkind produce the partible inheritance which reduced many noble families to penury on the continent....
- The redistribution by gavelkind on each occasion extended to the clan or sept - not beyond.
- The Irish gavelkind, it will be seen, is quite different from the gavelkind customary in the county of Kent.
Origin
Middle English: from obsolete gavel 'payment, rent' + kind1.
- give someone one
- give someone (or get) a thick ear
- give someone (or get) the bum's rush
- give someone (some) skin
- give someone the big E
- give someone the bird
- give someone the boot
- give someone the creeps
- give someone the elbow
- give someone (the) evils
- give someone the eye
- give someone the finger
- give someone the flick (or get the flick)
- give someone the glad eye
- give someone the hairy eyeball
- give someone their cards
- give someone their due
- give someone their head
- give someone the needle
- give someone the pip
- give someone the shits
- give someone the shudders
- give someone the slip
- give someone the time of day
- give someone the works