artisan's lien
- noun
- /ˈɑːrtɪzənz liːn/
- Formal
- The jeweler exercised an artisan's lien to keep the ring until her client paid the full amount.
Examples
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The carpenter placed an artisan's lien on the furniture.
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Under law, a mechanic can claim an artisan's lien on a repaired vehicle pending payment.
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Having completed the sculpture, he used his artisan's lien to ensure he was compensated before releasing it.
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Have you heard about the artisan's lien law?
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The carpenter placed an artisan's lien on the table he crafted until he was paid for his work.
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After completing the painting, the artist decided to assert an artisan's lien on it until the buyer fulfilled the payment.
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To ensure he would receive payment, the jeweler filed an artisan's lien for the ring he created.
Synonyms
A legal right to keep someone's property until they pay a debt
Surface Forms
Morphology
artisan's + lien
The phrase is a straightforward possessive composition: 'artisan's' (belonging to an artisan) + 'lien' (a legal right to retain property), so the meaning is the lien held by an artisan to secure payment. This follows regular possessive + noun patterns common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would be able to derive the intended meaning.
Etymology
Artisan's lien comes from old craft shops where a worker would keep a customer's finished item until the bill was paid. Here, artisan means a skilled maker and lien means a 'right to hold' the item, so the phrase today means the worker can keep the item until they are paid.