garageman's lien
- noun
- /ˈɡɛrədʒˌmænz liːn/
- Formal
:
derecho de retención del garajista
- Under the garageman's lien, the garage kept the car until all storage fees were settled.
Examples
-
The repair shop exercised its garageman's lien when the customer failed to pay the bill.
-
The mechanic placed a garageman's lien on the car.
-
If you do not settle your account, a garageman's lien may be placed on your vehicle.
-
After the repairs, the garageman's lien was released.
-
If you do not settle your account, a garageman's lien may be placed on your vehicle.
-
The repair shop exercised its garageman's lien when the customer failed to pay the bill.
-
Under the garageman's lien, the garage kept the car until all storage fees were settled.
Synonyms
30
9.4
A legal right to keep someone's property until they pay a debt
Surface Forms
Morphology
garageman's + lien
The phrase is a straightforward possessive composition: 'garageman's' (garage owner/mechanic) + 'lien' (a legal right to retain property), so the meaning — a lien held by the garage owner to keep a vehicle until payment — follows directly from the constituents. Although the term is legal/technical, its structure and semantics are compositional and would be inferable to a learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Garageman's lien comes from a simple picture: a garage owner (garageman) holds a car until the customer pays. A 'lien' is a right to 'keep' the car for unpaid repairs or storage, so the phrase means the garage can keep the car 'until payment is made'.