escrow

English

Etymology

From Middle English escrowe, ascrowe (“escrow”), from Old French escroe, escroue (“scroll, strip of parchment”), from Frankish *skrōda (“a shred”). Doublet of scroll.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛs.kɹəʊ̯/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛs.kɹoʊ̯/

Noun

escrow (countable and uncountable, plural escrows)

1. (law) A written instrument, such as a deed, temporarily deposited with a neutral third party (the escrow agent), by the agreement of two parties to a valid contract. The escrow agent will deliver the document to the benefited party when the conditions of the contract have been met. The depositor has no control over the instrument in escrow.
2. (law) In common law, escrow applied to the deposits only of instruments for conveyance of land, but it now applies to all instruments so deposited.
3. (law) Money or other property so deposited is also loosely referred to as escrow.
4. The state of property deposited with an escrow agent.

Translations

written instrument deposited with a neutral third party

• Catalan: fideïcomís (ca)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

deposits of instruments for conveyance of land

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

money or other property so deposited

• Catalan: béns en fideïcomís
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

state of deposited property

• Catalan: bé fideïcomès
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: borg (nl)
• Finnish: kolmannen osapuolen haltuun uskottu asiakirja, escrow
• French: fiducie (fr)
• German: Treuhand (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: Salyginio deponavimo sutartis
• Portuguese: fideicomisso (pt)
• Spanish: fideicomiso (es)
• Swedish: deposition (sv)

Verb

escrow (third-person singular simple present escrows, present participle escrowing, simple past and past participle escrowed)

1. To place in escrow.
   • 2007 March 3, Vikas Bajaj, “U.S. Urges Lenders to Revise Standards on Granting Credit”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     The regulators suggest that in underwriting these loans, lenders be required to take into account the ability of the borrowers to make monthly payments at the higher rates and also property taxes and homeowners insurance, which are often not escrowed monthly in subprime loans.

See also

• impound

Anagrams

• Cowser, cowers, scower