white rent
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Rent payable in silver money. An annual duty of eightpence payable by every tin-miner in Devon and Cornwall to the Duke of Cornwall as lord of the soil.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “white rent” mean?
Rent payable in silver money. An annual duty of eightpence payable by every tin-miner in Devon and Cornwall to the Duke of Cornwall as lord of the soil.
Is “white rent” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.