Pronunciation: (i-stāt'), [key]
—n., v., -tat•ed, -tat•ing.
1. a piece of landed property, esp. one of large extent with an elaborate house on it: to have an estate in the country.
a. property or possessions.
b. the legal position or status of an owner, considered with respect to property owned in land or other things.
c. the degree or quantity of interest that a person has in land with respect to the nature of the right, its duration, or its relation to the rights of others.
d. interest, ownership, or property in land or other things.
e. the property of a deceased person, a bankrupt, etc., viewed as an aggregate.
3. Brit.a housing development.
4. a period or condition of life: to attain to man's estate.
5. a major political or social group or class, esp. one once having specific political powers, as the clergy, nobles, and commons in France or the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and commons in England.
6. condition or circumstances with reference to worldly prosperity, estimation, etc.; social status or rank.
7. Obs.pomp or state.
8. Obs.high social status or rank.
Obs.to establish in or as in an estate.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.