distrain
C2CEFR level
95/100Rarity: very rare
TechnicalRegister
Law verb
To seize a tenant's goods as security or in satisfaction of unpaid rent or other obligation.
Formerly a landlord could distrain upon the tenant's chattels to recover arrears of rent.
Business verb
To seize a tenant's goods in order to enforce payment of rent arrears.
Before modern reforms, a landlord could distrain on stock the moment rent fell overdue.
Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.
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