also 7 abeiance, abbayance. [a. Anglo-Fr. abeiance, abeyance (Littleton), = OFr. abeance, abaence, n. of condition, f. abeer, abaher, to gape or aspire after; f. à to + beer, baer, bader, mod. bayer, to open wide (the mouth), gape = Pr. and Sp. badar, It. badare:—late L. badāre (in Isidore = oscitare, ‘to open the mouth wide, gape’); origin undetermined: see conjectures in Diez and Littré. In OFr. the condition of the heir or other aspirant, in whose abeance, aspiration, or appetence a title or property stood; hence in Eng. law applied to the condition of the property, the ownership of which is thus claimed, or merely liable to be claimed by some one.]
1. Law. Expectation or contemplation of law; the position of waiting for or being without a claimant or owner.
1528. Perkins, Profitable Booke (1642), xi. § 708. 308. The fee is in abeyance.
1574. trans. Littleton, Tenures, 119 a. The righte of fee simple is in abeiance, that is to say alonely in the remembrance, entendemente and consideration of the lawe.
1649. Selden, Laws of Eng. (1739), I. lxvi. 145. The right was vanished into the Clouds, or, as the Lawyers term it, in Abeyance.
1691. Blount, Law Dict., s.v. And it is a Principle in the Law, That of every Land there is a Fee-simple in some man, or it is in Abeyance.
1763. Ld. Barrington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 449. IV. 462. Sir Francis Dashwood called to the House of Lords as Baron Dispenser (in abeyance since Lord Westmoreland’s death).
1863. Cox, Inst. of Eng. Gov., I. vii. 67. There are several instances of a barony revived after an abeyance of several centuries.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., xiii. 90. The Peerage that is in Abeyance is dormant only, and not dead.
2. A state of suspension, temporary non-existence or inactivity: dormant or latent condition liable to be at any time revived.
1660. R. Coke, Elem. Power & Subj., 61. And this monarchy not a thing in abeiance, an aiery title, but an absolute free and independent monarchy.
1794. Burke, Sp. agst. Hastings, Wks. XV. 13. His honour is in abeyance; his estimation is suspended, and he stands as it were a doubtful person.
1800. Deb. Ho. Commons, Ireland, 227. There does exist in society a power in abeyance.
1829. Scott, Demonology, vi. 181. The belief was fallen into abeyance.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, xvii. 419. In the abeyance of the Cathedral services.
1878. Tait & Stewart, Unseen Univ., vii. § 204. 203. That the soul may remain veiled or in abeyance until the resurrection.
