Tenant

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: ten=ant

CIDE DICTIONARY

Tenant, n. [F. tenant, p. pr. of tenir to hold. See Tenable, and cf. Lieutenant.].

•  One who holds or possesses lands, or other real estate, by any kind of right, whether in fee simple, in common, in severalty, for life, for years, or at will; also, one who has the occupation or temporary possession of lands or tenements the title of which is in another; -- correlative to landlord. See Citation from Blackstone, under Tenement, 2.  Blount. Wharton.  [1913 Webster]
•  One who has possession of any place; a dweller; an occupant.  Cowper.  [1913 Webster]

  "The hhappy tenant of your shade."  [1913 Webster]

  "The sister tenants of the middle deep."  [1913 Webster]

Tenant in capite [L. in in + capite, abl. of caput head, chief.], or Tenant in chief, by the laws of England, one who holds immediately of the king. According to the feudal system, all lands in England are considered as held immediately or mediately of the king, who is styled lord paramount. Such tenants, however, are considered as having the fee of the lands and permanent possession. Blackstone. -- Tenant in common. See under Common.

Tenant, v. t. 

 To hold, occupy, or possess as a tenant.  [1913 Webster]
"Sir Roger's estate is tenanted by persons who have served him or his ancestors."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Tenant, n. & v.
--n.
1 a person who rents land or property from a landlord.
2 (often foll. by of) the occupant of a place.
3 Law a person holding real property by private ownership.
--v.tr. occupy as a tenant.

Idiom

tenant farmer a person who farms rented land. tenant right Brit. the right of a tenant to continue a tenancy at the termination of the lease.

Derivative

tenantable adj. tenantless adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF, pres. part. of tenir hold f. L tenere

THESAURUS

Tenant

abide, addressee, artist-in-residence, berth, board-and-roomer, boarder, bunk, cohabit, denizen, domicile, domiciliate, doss down, dwell, dweller, habitant, hang out, hirer, homesteader, house detective, incumbent, inhabit, inhabitant, inhabiter, inmate, inpatient, intern, leaseholder, lessee, live, live-in maid, locum tenens, lodge, lodger, nest, occupant, occupier, occupy, paying guest, people, perch, populate, remain, renter, reside, residencer, resident, resident physician, residentiary, resider, room, roomer, roost, sojourner, squat, squatter, stay, sublessee, subtenant, tenant at sufferance, tenant for life, transient, transient guest, underlessee

ROGET THESAURUS

Tenant

Possessor

N possessor, holder, occupant, occupier, tenant, person in possession, man in possession, renter, lodger, lessee, underlessee, zemindar, ryot, tenant on sufferance, tenant at will, tenant from year to year, tenant for years, tenant for life, owner, proprietor, proprietress, proprietary, impropriator, master, mistress, lord, land holder, land owner, landlord, land lady, slumlord, lord of the manor, lord paramount, heritor, laird, vavasour, landed gentry, mesne lord, planter, cestui-que-trust, beneficiary, mortgagor, grantee, feoffee, releasee, relessee, devisee, legatee, legatary, trustee, holder of the legal estate, mortgagee, right owner, rightful owner, heir presumptive, heir apparent, heiress, inheritor, inheritress, inheritrix, reversioner, remainderman.

Presence

VB exist in space, be present, assister, make one of, make one at, look on, attend, remain, find oneself, present oneself, show one's face, fall in the way of, occur in a place, lie, stand, occupy, be there, people, inhabit, dwell, reside, stay, sojourn, live, abide, lodge, nestle, roost, perch, take up one's abode, tenant, resort to, frequent, haunt, revisit, fill, pervade, permeate, be diffused, be disseminated, be through, over spread, overrun, run through, meet one at every turn.

Inhabitant

N inhabitant, resident, residentiary, dweller, indweller, addressee, occupier, occupant, householder, lodger, inmate, tenant, incumbent, sojourner, locum tenens, commorant, settler, squatter, backwoodsman, colonist, islander, denizen, citizen, burgher, oppidan, cockney, cit, townsman, burgess, villager, cottager, cottier, cotter, compatriot, backsettler, boarder, hotel keeper, innkeeper, habitant, paying guest, planter, native, indigene, aborigines, autochthones, Englishman, John Bull, newcomer, aboriginal, American, Caledonian, Cambrian, Canadian, Canuck, downeaster, Scot, Scotchman, Hibernian, Irishman, Welshman, Uncle Sam, Yankee, Brother Jonathan, garrison, crew, population, people, colony, settlement, household, mir, indigenous, native, natal, autochthonal, autochthonous, British, English, American, Canadian, Irish, Scotch, Scottish, Welsh, domestic, domiciliated, domiciled, naturalized, vernacular, domesticated, domiciliary, in the occupation of, garrisoned by, occupied by.