⚖️ Seizing property 📦 Seized items

distrainment

9.9

Property taken by legal order to pay a debt

noun
/dɪsˈtreɪnmənt/

: bienes embargados

The court ordered the distrainment of the tenant's furniture to cover unpaid rent.

Examples

After the distrainment, the goods were listed for public auction.
The bank initiated a distrainment of the property.
The landlord initiated distrainment proceedings to recover the debt owed.
After the court ruling, the distrainment was executed swiftly.
The court ordered the distrainment of the tenant's furniture to cover unpaid rent.
After the distrainment, the goods were listed for public auction.
The landlord initiated distrainment proceedings to recover the debt owed.

Synonyms

sequestrum

vsdistrainment

Archaic

9.9

Property or goods that the court keeps until a case is decided

is seizure aimed specifically at satisfying a debt or claim

Antonyms

return

231 1.0

An act of giving something back to its owner

How Forceful

distrainment

9.9

tax collection

Formal

6 3.3

tax obligation

Specialized

1 4.1

Surface Forms

distrainment singular

distrainments plural

Morphology

distrainment = distrain (transparent) = distrain + ment

The noun is a regular nominalization of 'distrain' where '-ment' can denote either the act or the thing seized, a derivation that is predictable from the verb.

Etymology

Distrainment comes from the same root as distrain, with dis- 'apart' and stringere 'to pull', and it makes you think of goods being 'pulled away' from a person. The root is like the English word strain, which also means 'to pull', so distrainment can mean the actual property or goods that were seized to cover a debt.