RENT, pp. of rend. Torn asunder; split or burst by violence; torn.

RENT, n. [from rend.

1. A fissure; a break or breach made by force; as, a rent made in the earth, in a rock or in a garment.
2. A schism; a separation; as, a rent in the church. – White.

A sum of money, or a certain amount of other valuable thing, issuing yearly from lands or tenements; a compensation or return, in the nature of an acknowledgment, for the possession of a corporeal inheritance. – Blackstone. Rents, at common law, are of three kinds; rent-service, rent-charge, and rent-seck. Rent-service is when some corporal service is incident to it, as by fealty and a sum of money; rent-charge is when the owner of the rent has no future interest or reversion expectant in the land, but the rent is reserved in the deed by a clause of distress for rent in arrear; rent-seek, dry rent, is rent reserved by deed, but without any clause of distress. There are also rents of assize, certain established rents of freeholders and copyholders of manors, which can not be varied; called also quit-rents. These when payable in silver, are called white rents, in contradistinction to rents reserved in work or the baser metals, called black rents or black mail. Rack-rent is a rent of the full value of the tenement, or near it. A fee farm rent is a rent-charge issuing out of an estate in fee, of at least one fourth of the value of the lands at the time of its reservation. – Blackstone.

Torn asunder; split or burst by violence; torn.

To rant. [Not in use.] – Hudibras.

To be leased, or let for rent; as, an estate or a tenement rents for five hundred dollars a year.

To tear. [See Rend.]

1. To lease; to grant the possession and enjoyment of lands or tenements for a consideration in the nature of rent. The owner of an estate or house rents it to a tenant for a term of years.
2. To take and hold by lease the possession of land or a tenement, for a consideration in the nature of rent. The tenant rents his estate for a year.

1. To rant.
   
   
   [R. *** Obs.] Hudibras.
2. An opening made by rending] a break or breach made by force; a tear.
   
   

   See what a rent the envious Casca made. Shak.

3. To tear. See Rend.
   
   
   [Obs.] Chaucer.
4. Income; revenue. See Catel.
   
   
   [Obs.] "Catel had they enough and rent." Chaucer.

   [Bacchus] a waster was and all his rent
   In wine and bordel he dispent. Gower.

   So bought an annual rent or two,
   And liv'd, just as you see I do. Pope.

5. To grant the possession and enjoyment of, for a rent] to lease; as, the owwner of an estate or house rents it.
6. To be leased, or let for rent; as, an estate rents for five hundred dollars a year.
7. That portion of the produce of the earth paid to the landlord for the use of the "original and indestructible powers of the soil;" the excess of the return from a given piece of cultivated land over that from land of equal area at the "margin of cultivation." Called also economic, or Ricardian, rent. Economic rent is due partly to differences of productivity, but chiefly to advantages of location; it is equivalent to ordinary or commercial rent less interest on improvements, and nearly equivalent to ground rent.
   
   
   (b)
8. Figuratively, a schism; a rupture of harmony; a separation; as, a rent in the church.
   
   

   Syn. -- Fissure; breach; disrupture; rupture; tear; dilaceration; break; fracture.

9. Pay; reward; share; toll.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Death, that taketh of high and low his rent. Chaucer.

10. To take and hold under an agreement to pay rent; as, the tennant rents an estate of the owner.
11. A certain periodical profit, whether in money, provisions, chattels, or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements in payment for the use; commonly, a certain pecuniary sum agreed upon between a tenant and his landlord, paid at fixed intervals by the lessee to the lessor, for the use of land or its appendages; as, rent for a farm, a house, a park, etc.
    
    

    * The term rent is also popularly applied to compensation for the use of certain personal chattels, as a piano, a sewing machine, etc.

    Black rent. See Blackmail, 3. -- Forehand rent, rent which is paid in advance; foregift. -- Rent arrear, rent in arrears; unpaid rent. Blackstone. -- Rent charge (Law), a rent reserved on a conveyance of land in fee simple, or granted out of lands by deed; -- so called because, by a covenant or clause in the deed of conveyance, the land is charged with a distress for the payment of it. Bouvier. -- Rent roll, a list or account of rents or income; a rental. -- Rent seck (Law), a rent reserved by deed, but without any clause of distress; barren rent. A power of distress was made incident to rent seck by Statute 4 George II. c. 28. -- Rent service (Eng. Law), rent reserved out of land held by fealty or other corporeal service; -- so called from such service being incident to it. -- White rent, a quitrent when paid in silver; -- opposed to black rent.