FEE, n. [L. pecu, pecus. From the use of cattle in transferring property, or from barter and payments in cattle, the word came to signify money; it signified also goods, substance in general. The word belongs to Class Bg, but the primary sense is not obvious.]

A reward or compensation for services; recompense, either gratuitous, or established by law and claimed of right. It is applied particularly to the reward of professional services; as, the fees of lawyers and physicians; the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage fees, &c. Many of these are fixed by law; but gratuities to professional men are also called fees.

Primarily, a loan of land, an estate in trust, granted by a prince or lord, to be held by the grantee on condition of personal service, or other condition; and if the grantee or tenant failed to perform the conditions, the land reverted to the lord or donor, called the landlord, or lend-lord, the lord of the loan. A fee then is any land or tenement held of a superior on certain conditions. It is synonymous with fief and feud. All the land in England, except the Crown land, is of this kind. Fees are absolute or limited. An absolute fee or fee-simple is land which a man holds to himself and his heirs forever, who are called tenants in fee-simple. Hence in modern times, the term fee or fee-simple denotes an estate of inheritance; and in America, where lands are not generally held of a superior, a fee or fee-simple is an estate in which the owner has the whole property without any condition annexed to the tenure. A limited fee is an estate limited or clogged with certain conditions; as, a qualified or base fee, which ceases with the existence of certain conditions; and a conditional fee, which is limited to particular heirs. Blackstone. Encyc. In the United States, an estate in fee or fee-simple is what is called in English law an allodial estate, an estate held by a person in his own right, and descendible to the heirs in general.

1. To pay a fee to; to reward. Hence,
2. To engage in one's service by advancing a fee or sum of money to; as, to fee a lawyer.
3. To hire; to bribe. Shak.
4. To keep in hire. Shak.

1. property; possession; tenure.
   
   
   "Laden with rich fee." Spenser.

   Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee. Wordsworth.

2. To reward for services performed, or to be performed] to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
   
   

   The patient . . . fees the doctor. Dryden.

   There's not a one of them but in his house
   I keep a servant feed. Shak.

3. Reward or compensation for services rendered or to be rendered; especially, payment for professional services, of optional amount, or fixed by custom or laws; charge; pay; perquisite; as, the fees of lawyers and physicians; the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage fees, etc.
   
   

   To plead for love deserves more fee than hate. Shak.

4. A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief.
5. An estate of inheritance supposed to be held either mediately or immediately from the sovereign, and absolutely vested in the owner.
   
   

   * All the land in England, except the crown land, is of this kind. An absolute fee, or fee simple, is land which a man holds to himself and his heirs forever, who are called tenants in fee simple. In modern writers, by fee is usually meant fee simple. A limited fee may be a qualified or base fee, which ceases with the existence of certain conditions; or a conditional fee, or fee tail, which is limited to particular heirs. Blackstone.

6. An estate of inheritance belonging to the owner, and transmissible to his heirs, absolutely and simply, without condition attached to the tenure.
   
   

   Fee estate (Eng. Law), land or tenements held in fee in consideration or some acknowledgment or service rendered to the lord. -- Fee farm (Law), land held of another in fee, in consideration of an annual rent, without homage, fealty, or any other service than that mentioned in the feoffment; an estate in fee simple, subject to a perpetual rent. Blackstone. -- Fee farm rent (Eng. Law), a perpetual rent reserved upon a conveyance in fee simple. -- Fee fund (Scot. Law), certain court dues out of which the clerks and other court officers are paid. -- Fee simple (Law), an absolute fee; a fee without conditions or limits.

   Buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter. Shak.

   -- Fee tail (Law), an estate of inheritance, limited and restrained to some particular heirs. Burill.