easement
(ˈiːzmənt)
Also 4 eyse-, 4–5 esement, 5 esmint, -ment, aysyament, (6 hesement), 6–8 eas-, 7 aisment.
[a. OF. aisement, f. ais-ier, ease v.: see -ment; cf. Anglo-Lat. aisiamentum.]
1. The process or means of giving or obtaining ease or relief from pain, discomfort, or anything annoying or burdensome; relief, alleviation; † redress of grievances. Now somewhat rare.
| c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 259 Some esement has lawe yshapen us. c 1400 Destr. Troy 7988 We exiled for euermore our easement to laite. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xviii. 105 In sted of easement he findeth himself tormented dubble. 1640–9 Sir B. Rudyard in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 24 They must..be eased in their Goods, from the exactions..of Pursevants [etc.]..And if the People have all these easements, yet if, etc. 1796 Burke Let. noble Ld. Wks. 1842 II. 260, I certainly stand in need of every kind of relief and easement. 1840 W. Howitt Visits Remark. Places 200 Seeking a little easement of their swollen purses. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. III. ix. 405 He promised its reduction to three shillings in the pound, an easement to the landed interest of five hundred thousand pounds. |
† b. dogs of easement: dogs employed to take up the chase in place of those that are spent. Obs.
| 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 692 Then also you must let slip some of your fresh dogs, or dogs of easement. |
† c. spec. The relieving of the body by evacuation of excrement; concr., a privy. Phrases, house, stool of easement; to do one's easement. Obs.
| c 1430 Life St. Kath. (1884) 43 Schal þey [children] not..make me foule wyth her kyndely esement. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 283 And se the hous of hesement be swete and clene. 1555 Fardle Facions i. v. 51 In the easemente of vrine, the men rowked doune. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Aller à la selle, to go to the stoole of easement. 1634 Harington Salernes Regim. 3 Doing his easement. 1712 Digby Epicurus' Morals 124 The soldiers..found him in a House of Easement. |
† d. spec. Refreshment by food and repose; hence, comfortable accommodation, food and lodging; ‘entertainment for man or beast’. Obs.
| c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 3384 He had ful nobil rest, With alkins esment of the best. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. clxx. 155 He wold not abyde in scotland in wynter season for esement of his peple. 15.. Eger & Gr. 235 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 361 Easment for me and my hackney. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. i. (1539) 5 A place of easement to put in cattel. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 93 Meit and drink, fyre, claithis and easment. 1820 Scott Monast. xvi, He might have had less to complain of in respect of easements. |
2. Advantage, convenience, comfort; furtherance, assistance; formerly also, gratification, enjoyment. † common easement: something done for the public benefit. arch. or Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 3338 A place onestly ordainit for esmint of hir. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. viii. 772 Wyth þare possessyounys and þare Rentis Wyth wont Fredomys and Aysyamentis. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xx. 120 Into esement of him silf and also of his neiȝbour, a man mai singe, pleie, and lauȝe vertuoseli. 1581 W. Stafford Exam. Compl. i. (1876) 16 The reparation of such wayes, brydges, and other common easements. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 212 Nature unwilling that humane life should want any easement, hath provided..the labour of cammels. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §283 To leave our..loose materials, stowed away in the store-room,..was indeed a great easement to us. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxvii, I had the cast of a horse from Ferrybridge—and divers other easements. |
b. concr. Something that serves for an assistance or convenience; e.g. accommodation in or about a house, as rooms, sheds, or farm buildings.
| c 1400 Mandeville xix. 214 Schippes..made with Halles & Chambres and other eysementes. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 138 Easmentis fixed vnto houses or to soile. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj., Act Robt. I, 26 That nane of them [our subjects] sall..carie..anie kind of armour: or horse, or other aismentis, to the comon enemies of our Realme. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) 28 Without the assistance of such easements. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. II. 48 The bills in their houses [in Scotland] say they have different easements to let. |
3. The right or privilege of using something not one's own; esp. in Law. (See quot.)
| 1463 Bury Wills (1850) 22, I wille the seid Jenete terme of hire lyff haue esement of the kechene to make in hire mete, and esement of the welle in y⊇ yeerd. 1598 Kitchin Courts Leet (1675) 210 A Way or other thing of easement. 1607 Cowell, Easement, esamentum, is a seruice that one neighbour hath of another by charter or prescription, without profite, as a way through his ground, or such like. 1876 Digby Real Prop. iii. 154 If the purposes for which the land of another are used merely tend to the more convenient enjoyment of another piece of land, the right is called an easement. |