The legal status or condition of servitude of a villein or feudal serf.

synonym: villainage.

Roget 777: possession, seizin [Law], seisin [Law]; ownership etc. 780; occupancy; hold, holding; tenure, tenancy, feodality^†, dependency; villenage, villeinage^†; socage^†, chivalry, knight service.    exclusive possession, impropriation^†, monopoly, retention etc. 781; prepossession, preoccupancy^†; nine points of the law; corner, usucaption^†.    future possession, heritage, inheritance, heirship, reversion, fee, seigniority^†; primogeniture, ultimogeniture^†.    futures contract [right of future possession; financial instruments], warrant, put, call, option; right of first refusal.    bird in hand, uti possidetis [Lat.], chose in possession.    ... show more

Tenure by which a villein held land.