2. (Common Law) Any species of permanent property that may be
held, so as to create a tenancy, as lands, houses, rents,
commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of
common, a peerage, and the like; -- called also {free or
frank tenements}.
The thing held is a tenement, the possessor of it a
``tenant,'' and the manner of possession is called
``tenure.'' --Blackstone.
3. A dwelling house; a building for a habitation; also, an
apartment, or suite of rooms, in a building, used by one
family; often, a house erected to be rented.
4. Fig.: Dwelling; abode; habitation.
Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit
no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of
frontispiece? --Locke.
{Tenement house}, commonly, a dwelling house erected for the
purpose of being rented, and divided into separate
apartments or tenements for families. The term is often
applied to apartment houses occupied by poor families.
Syn: House; dwelling; habitation.
Usage: {Tenement}, {House}. There may be many houses under
one roof, but they are completely separated from each
other by party walls. A tenement may be detached by
itself, or it may be part of a house divided off for
the use of a family.
The member of a dominant race is, in his dealings with
the subject race, seldom indeed fraudulent, . . . but
imperious, insolent, and cruel. --Macaulay.
{Dominant estate} or {tenement} (Law), the estate to which a
servitude or easement is due from another estate, the
estate over which the servitude extends being called the
servient estate or tenement. --Bouvier. --Wharton's Law
Dict.
{Dominant owner} (Law), one who owns lands on which there is
an easement owned by another.
Syn: Governing; ruling; controlling; prevailing; predominant;
ascendant.