Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ES-CHEAT', v.i.

1. In England, to revert, as land, to the lord of a manor, by means of the extinction of the blood of the tenant.
2. In America, to fall or come, as land, to the state, through failure of heirs or owners, or by forfeiture for treason. In the feudal sense, no escheat can exist in the United States; but the word is used in statutes confiscating the estates of those who abandoned their country, during the Revolution, and in statutes giving to the state the lands for which no owner can be found.