Mŏrt'gāge1, n.
(môr'gej), n. [Fr. mort-gage, from mort, Lat. mortuus, dead, and gage, pledge. See GAGE.] 1. (Law.) A conveyance of property, upon condition, as security for the payment of a debt or the performance of a duty, and to become void upon payment or performance.
☞ It was called a mortgage (or dead pledge) because, whatever profit it might yield, it did not thereby redeem itself, but became lost or dead to the mortgager upon breach of the condition. But in equity a right of redemption is an inseparable incident of a mortgage until the mortgager is debarred by his own laches, or by judicial decree. Covell. Blount. Kent. Tomlins. New Am. Cyc.
Sense 2. The state of being pledged; as, lands given in mortgage.