Law. A tenant who holds at the will or pleasure of the lessor. Also fig.
c. 1500. Lichfield Gild Ord. (E.E.T.S.), 14. It is ordenyd that … no tenaind at wyll shall make a tenand.
1598. Child-Marriages, 164. Acceptans of the said Robert Fletcher to be his tenaunte at will of the said shop.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 55. The lessee is called Tenant at will, because hee hath no certain nor sure estate, for the lessor may put him out at what time it pleaseth him.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 27. Let us look upon ourselves only as ‘tenants at will’; and hold ourselves in perpetual readiness to depart at a moment’s warning.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., x. 92. Tenants at will have no inducement to improve their farms.
