easement
n. countablen. a legal right to use someone else's land for a specific purpose. For example, you might have the right to walk across your neighbor's yard to reach a public road.
n. a non-possessory right to use and enjoy a portion of another person's real property for a specific, limited purpose. Often established by long-standing use or by agreement between the landowners.
The neighbor's fence blocks our easement to the street.
The utility company maintains an easement across the property to access the underground gas lines for repairs.
While the original deed granted a right of way, the subsequent subdivision of the land created a legal dispute over whether the easement remained valid for the new parcel owners.
From Anglo-Norman aisement, easement, eisement, esament, esement, and Middle French aisement (“comfort, convenience, ease, facility, opportunity; a benefit, relief; a right to use land, a thing, etc.; a privy”), from aisier (“to put at ease; to facilitate”) + -ment (“-ment, suffix forming nouns, usually the action or state resulting from verbs”).