Perpetuity

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Perpetuity \Per`pe*tu"i*ty\, n. [L. perpetuitas: cf. F.
     perp['e]tuit['e].]
     1. The quality or state of being perpetual; as, the
        perpetuity of laws. --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              A path to perpetuity of fame.         --Byron.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The perpetuity of a single emotion is insanity. --I.
                                                    Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Something that is perpetual. --South.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Endless time. "And yet we should, for perpetuity, go hence
        in debt." --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Annuities)
        (a) The number of years in which the simple interest of
            any sum becomes equal to the principal.
        (b) The number of years' purchase to be given for an
            annuity to continue forever.
        (c) A perpetual annuity.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Law)
        (a) Duration without limitations as to time.
        (b) The quality or condition of an estate by which it
            becomes inalienable, either perpetually or for a very
            long period; also, the estate itself so modified or
            perpetuated.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  perpetuity
       n : the property of being perpetual (seemingly ceaseless) [syn:
           {sempiternity}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  94 Moby Thesaurus words for "perpetuity":
     abidingness, age, all-comprehensiveness, all-inclusiveness,
     antiquity, boundlessness, ceaselessness, chattering, constancy,
     constant flow, continualness, continuance, continuity,
     countlessness, defeat of time, defiance of time, distance,
     diuturnity, durability, durableness, duration, endlessness,
     endurance, eternity, exhaustlessness, extension, extent, forever,
     illimitability, immeasurability, immensity, incalculability,
     incessancy, incomprehensibility, inexhaustibility, infiniteness,
     infinitude, infinity, innumerability, interminability, lastingness,
     length, lengthiness, limitlessness, linear measures, long standing,
     long time, long-lastingness, long-livedness, longevity, longitude,
     longness, maintenance, measure, measurelessness, mileage,
     noninterruption, numberlessness, oscillation, overall length,
     perdurability, perennation, permanence, persistence, pulsation,
     quick fire, rapid fire, rapid recurrence, rapid succession,
     rapidity, reach, regularity, repetition, span, stability, staccato,
     standing, steadfastness, steadiness, stretch, stuttering, survival,
     survivance, sustainment, tattoo, termlessness, timelessness,
     unintermission, uninterruption, universality, unmeasurability,
     vibration, world without end, yardage
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PERPETUITY, estates. Any limitation tending to take the subject of it out of 
  commerce for a longer period than a life or lives in being, and twenty-one 
  years beyond; and in case of a posthumous child, a few months more, allowing 
  for the term of gestation; Randall on Perpetuities, 48; or it is such a 
  limitation of property as renders it unalienable beyond the period allowed 
  by law. Gilbert on Uses, by Sugden, 260, note. 
       2. Mr. Justice Powell, in Scattergood v. Edge, 12 Mod. 278, 
  distinguished perpetuities into two sorts, absolute and qualified; meaning 
  thereby, as it is apprehended, a distinction between a plain, direct and 
  palpable perpetuity, and the case where an estate is limited on a 
  contingency, which might happen within a reasonable compass of time, but 
  where the estate nevertheless, from the nature of the limitation, might be 
  kept out of commerce longer than was thought agreeable to the policy of the 
  common law. But this distinction would not now lead to a better 
  understanding or explanation of the subject; for whether an estate be so 
  limited that it cannot take effect, until a period too much protracted, or 
  whether on a contingency which may happen within a moderate compass of time, 
  it equally falls within the line of perpetuity and the limitation is 
  therefore void; for it is not sufficient that an estate may vest within the 
  time allowed, but the rule requires that it must. Randall on Perp. 49. Vide 
  Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, c. 23; 1 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 406; 2 Ves. Jr. 357; 3 
  Saund. 388 h. note; Com. Dig. Chancery, 4 G 1; 3 Chan. Cas. 1; 2 Bouv. Inst. 
  n. 1890.