Word of the Day — November 8, 2012

Lien — leen — a right to keep possession of property belonging to another person until a debt owed by that person is discharged

Example: "An article in the New Yorker on California's Proposition 8's ban on same sex marriages: 'A lawyer once represented the U.S. Olympic Committee in a suit against the so-called Gay Olympics and put a lien on the founder's house despite the fact that he was dying of AIDS.'"