tenantry

plural tenantries

1. The act or state of being a tenant.

   The walls were never painted during my tenantry, becoming dingier and dingier as the years went by.

   Synonyms: tenantship

2. formalThe body of tenants on an estate.

   1 more example

   Are you fond of peasants? My tenantry are delightful creatures, and there is not one of them who remembers the bringing of the news of the Battle of Waterloo. When a new Duchess is brought to Tankerton, the oldest elm in the park must be felled. That is one of many strange old customs. As she is driven through the village, the children of the tenantry must strew the road with daisies.

   1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC