perpetuity
nounUK /ˌpɜː(ɹ)pɪˈtjuːɪti/ · US /ˌpɝpəˈtuːɪti/
Etymology From Middle English perpetuitee, perpetuite, perpetuyte, from Old French perpetüité, ultimately from Latin perpetuitās.
1
The quality or state of being perpetual; endless duration; uninterrupted existence.
- Mr. Waller adds that when the railway was authorised in 1897, one of the clauses of the Act authorising the transfer of the line to the North British Railway provided that that company should work it in perpetuity, and it was this clause that caused the interim interdict to be granted.1951 April, “Notes and News: North Fife Line, Scotland”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 281:
- The gnomic belief that the world is conditioned by love is no idle apothegm. Love, as the instrument of creative agencies and cosmic perpetuity, is no banausic conception.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page i:
2
Something that is perpetual.
3
Law A limitation intended to be unalterable and of indefinite duration; a disposition of property which attempts to make it inalienable beyond certain limits fixed or conceived as being fixed by the general law.
- Synonyms
- endlessness, eternity
- Derived terms
- in perpetuity, nonperpetuity
- Related terms
- Perpetuity in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)