escrow
n. uncountablen. a safe way to hold money or property during a deal. A neutral third person keeps it until both the buyer and seller finish their parts of the agreement.
n. a legal arrangement in which a financial instrument or asset is held by a third party on behalf of two other parties that are in the process of completing a transaction. The assets are released only upon the fulfillment of specific contractual conditions.
The buyer put the deposit into escrow.
During the home-buying process, the funds are typically held in escrow until all inspections are completed and the final contract is signed.
To mitigate risk in the international trade agreement, both corporations agreed to use an independent escrow agent to manage the transfer of intellectual property rights and the corresponding payments.
Learned borrowing from Law French escrowe, from Old French escroe (“register, note; bit of parchment; piece”), from Frankish skrōda (“piece”), from Proto-Germanic skraudō, derivative of Proto-Germanic *skraudaną (“to shred”). Doublet of scrow and shred and partially scroll.
Often used in the prepositional phrase 'in escrow'.