Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE'O-DAND, n. [L. Deo dandus, to be given to God.]

In England, a personal chattel which is the immediate occasion of the death of a rational creature, and for that reason, given to God, that is, forfeited to the king, to be applied to pious uses, and distributed in alms by his high almoner. Thus, if a cart runs over a man and kills him, the cart is forfeited as a deodand. Blackstone. Eng. Law.