1. a dwelling house with its adjacent buildings and the land assigned to its use
Usage: legal; archaic

Examples

• The deed described the messuage as including the main house, barn, and surrounding acres.
• Medieval records often referred to a peasant’s messuage when documenting land holdings.
• The legal document specified that the messuage would pass to the eldest son.
• Historical property surveys frequently used the term messuage to describe residential estates.
• The old English law distinguished between a messuage and vacant land.
• Court records from the 1600s detailed disputes over messuage boundaries.