Fee /(fē)/

Fee

n.
  1. property; possession; tenure.
    Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee.
  2. Reward or compensation for services rendered or to be rendered; especially, payment for professional services, of optional amount, or fixed by custom or laws; charge; pay; perquisite; as, the fees of lawyers and physicians; the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage fees, etc.
    To plead for love deserves more fee than hate.
  3. A right to the use of a superior's land, as a stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so held; a fief. (Feud. Law)
  4. An estate of inheritance supposed to be held either mediately or immediately from the sovereign, and absolutely vested in the owner. (Eng. Law)
  5. An estate of inheritance belonging to the owner, and transmissible to his heirs, absolutely and simply, without condition attached to the tenure. (Amer. Law)
    Buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.

Fee

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Feed; p. pr. & vb. n. Feeing

  1. To reward for services performed, or to be performed; to recompense; to hire or keep in hire; hence, to bribe.
    The patient . . . fees the doctor.
    There's not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant feed.