1
: a feudal estate : fee
2
: something over which one has rights or exercises control
a politician's fief
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In European feudalism, a fief was a source of income granted to a person (called a vassal) by his lord in exchange for his services. The fief usually consisted of land and the labor of peasants who were bound to cultivate it. The income it provided supported the vassal, who was obliged to fight for his lord as a knight.
Synonyms
Examples of fief in a Sentence
the logistics of the relief effort is the director's fief
Recent Examples on the Web
Arnaboldi himself enthused about the rarity of Le Logis in the heart of France’s Cognac region, and which is surrounded by 25 acres of vineyards and built in the fief of Frêsne, which was established around 1330.
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Sofia Celeste, WWD, 3 Sep. 2019
Shōgun is all about what transcends culture and what stays firmly in its own fief.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2024
One reason, Connelly suggests, is that the authority to classify has become a cherished prerogative of government power—a tool used by presidents, generals, and various chieftains of lesser fiefs to enshroud their decisions in mystery and ward off scrutiny or accountability.
—Foreign Affairs, 13 Feb. 2023
Three years after the coup, the center of Myanmar remains mostly under junta control, but the rest of the country is a kaleidoscopic array of competing influences, fiefs, democratic havens and drug-lord hideouts.
—Hannah Beech, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
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Sofia Celeste, WWD, 3 Sep. 2019
Shōgun is all about what transcends culture and what stays firmly in its own fief.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2024
One reason, Connelly suggests, is that the authority to classify has become a cherished prerogative of government power—a tool used by presidents, generals, and various chieftains of lesser fiefs to enshroud their decisions in mystery and ward off scrutiny or accountability.
—Foreign Affairs, 13 Feb. 2023
Three years after the coup, the center of Myanmar remains mostly under junta control, but the rest of the country is a kaleidoscopic array of competing influences, fiefs, democratic havens and drug-lord hideouts.
—Hannah Beech, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for fief
Dictionary Entries Near fief
Cite this Entry
“Fief.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fief. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.
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fief
noun
: a feudal estate
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