tenement
    n 1: a run-down apartment house barely meeting minimal standards
         [syn: tenement, tenement house]

Tenement \Ten"e*ment\, n. [OF. tenement a holding, a fief, F.
   t[`e]nement, LL. tenementum, fr. L. tenere to hold. See
   Tenant.]
   1. (Feud. Law) That which is held of another by service;
      property which one holds of a lord or proprietor in
      consideration of some military or pecuniary service; fief;
      fee.
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   2. (Common Law) Any species of permanent property that may be
      held, so as to create a tenancy, as lands, houses, rents,
      commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of
      common, a peerage, and the like; -- called also free
      tenements or frank tenements.
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            The thing held is a tenement, the possessor of it a
            "tenant," and the manner of possession is called
            "tenure."                             --Blackstone.
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   3. A dwelling house; a building for a habitation; also, an
      apartment, or suite of rooms, in a building, used by one
      family; often, a house erected to be rented.
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   4. Fig.: Dwelling; abode; habitation.
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            Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit
            no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of
            frontispiece?                         --Locke.
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   5. A tenement house.
      [PJC]

   Tenement house, commonly, a dwelling house erected for the
      purpose of being rented, and divided into separate
      apartments or tenements for families. The term is often
      applied to apartment houses occupied by poor families,
      often overcrowded and in poor condition.
      [1913 Webster +PJC]

   Syn: House; dwelling; habitation.

   Usage: Tenement, House. There may be many houses under
          one roof, but they are completely separated from each
          other by party walls. A tenement may be detached by
          itself, or it may be part of a house divided off for
          the use of a family. In modern usage, a tenement or
          tenement house most commonly refers to the meaning
          given for tenement house, above.
          [1913 Webster +PJC]

TENEMENT, estates. In its most extensive signification tenement comprehends 
every thing which may be holden, provided it be of a permanent nature; and 
not only lands and inheritances which are holden, but also rents and profits 
a prendre of which a man has any frank tenement, and of which he may be 
seised ut de libero tenemento, are included under this term. Co. Litt. 6 a; 
1 Tho. Co. Litt. 219; Pork. s. 114; 2 Bl. Com. 17. But the word tenements 
simply, without other circumstances, has never been construed to pass a fee. 
10 Wheat. 204. In its more confined and vulgar acceptation, it means a house 
or building. Ibid. an 1 Prest. on Est. 8. Vide 4 Bing. 293; S C. l1 Eng. C. 
L. Rep. 207; 1 T. R. 358; 3 T. R. 772; 3 East, R. 113; 5 East, R. 239; 
Burn's Just. Poor, 525 to 541; 1 B. & Adolph. 161; S. C. 20 Eng. C. L. Rep. 
36 8; Com. Dig. Grant, E 2; Trespass, A 2; Wood's Inst. 120; Babington on 
Auctions, 211, 212.