escrow

From Middle English escrowe, ascrowe (“escrow”), from Old French escroe, escroue (“scroll, strip of parchment”), which has given écrou, from Frankish *skrōda (“a shred”). Doublet of scroll and shred.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.skɹəʊ̯/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.skɹoʊ̯/

escrow (countable and uncountable, plural escrows)

1. (law) A contractual arrangement whereby money or assets are held in trust by an independent agent by the agreement of the parties, which can only be released to the relevant party once certain contractual conditions have been fulfilled.
   • 1987 May 9, “Setting the Record Strai..., um, Out in the Open”, in Gay Community News, page 4:

     GCN staffers wrote and called our landlords, complaining about the building's disrepair, for months before informing them, in September, 1985, that we would pay our rent into an escrow account until repairs were made.

   • 2006, Kathryn J Haupt, Principles of California Real Estate‎, page 305:

     The court will decide which party is the rightful owner of the items in escrow.

   • 2012, Madison Lake, Jade Lake, Salon Antics‎, page 22:

     “Well, Dominic,” Della suddenly chimed in. “Seeing as this place of yours is still under escrow, seems to me it's not really yours yet, is it?”

2. (informal) The money or assets so held.

• software escrow

• stakeholder

escrow (third-person singular simple present escrows, present participle escrowing, simple past and past participle escrowed)

1. To place in escrow.
   • 2007 March 3, Vikas Bajaj, “U.S. Urges Lenders to Revise Standards on Granting Credit”, in New York Times‎:

     The regulators suggest that in underwriting these loans, lenders be required to take into account the ability of the borrowers to make monthly payments at the higher rates and also property taxes and homeowners insurance, which are often not escrowed monthly in subprime loans.

• impound

• Cowser, cowers, scower