tenement

Definition

A building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one.

Etymology

From Middle English tenement, from Anglo-Norman tenement (“holding”), from Old French tenement, from Medieval Latin tenimentum, from Latin teneō (“hold”).

Example Sentences

• "He turned into Cumberland street and, going on some paces, halted in the lee of the station wall. No-one. Meade’s timberyard. Piled balks. Ruins and tenements."
• "The island of Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark."
• "Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?"