The Collaborative International Dictionary
Assart \As*sart"\, v. t.
To grub up, as trees; to commit an assart upon; as, to assart
land or trees.
--Ashmole.
Assart \As*sart"\ ([a^]s*s[aum]rt"), n. [OF. essart the grubbing up of trees, fr. essarter to grub up or clear ground of bushes, shrubs, trees, etc., fr. LL. exartum, exartare, for exsaritare; L. ex + sarire, sarrire, saritum, to hoe, weed.]
(Old Law) The act or offense of grubbing up trees and bushes, and thus destroying the thickets or coverts of a forest.
--Spelman.
--Cowell.-
A piece of land cleared of trees and bushes, and fitted for cultivation; a clearing.
--Ash.Assart land, forest land cleared of woods and brush.
Wiktionary
n. 1 forest land cleared for agriculture. 2 (context legal obsolete English) The act or offence of grubbing up trees and bushes, and thus destroying the tickets or coverts of a forest. vb. To clear forest land for agriculture; remove stump.
Usage examples of "assart".
And once he found a small, isolated clearing of ploughland with a mean little dwelling upon it, almost certainly an illegal assart, but law limped with both feet these days.
She hid it within the capuchon she had from the goodman in the assart under Parfois, and pulled on again the coarse chausses and tunic.
He fretted at it all the way down to the riverside, and by the time he had turned instinctively towards the forest and Robert's assart he had fumbled his way through the cloud of bewilderment and was beginning to understand.
He turned his back from the assart to the ford, after all, and waded the Severn in his shirt with his cotte and chausses under his arm, and went a good half of the way to Castell Coch before he dared take to the woods and lie waiting for full darkness.
By then he did not miss them, his sense of loneliness was so deeply accepted that it seemed to be his natural and eternal condition, and it was as if he did not look to see the silence broken again He went back no more to the companionable butts of Castell Coch, he was not drawn to the assart above the mill.
They had to work fast, and what was there to set Robert's assart apart from all the rest?
The fence of the paddock was down, the garden a waste of snow, the assart deserted.
He came along the riverside path by the mill, he passed the ruined assart, the cords of his memory knotting into a momentary congestion of pain.
Someone had carved out an assart, a clearing of narrow garden and field about a low cottage.
And how he tried to follow you, and lost himself, and was sheltered in the forest assart where I found him.
That must be along the selfsame track Cadfael had ridden with Yves on his saddle-bow, going home to Bromfield from Thurstan's assart in the forest.
The cottage lay in a cleared assart in the forest, with a neat garden about it, and when Hyacinth reached it the door was standing open, and within the house a girl was singing softly to herself as she worked.
The hermits boys come back to say youre needed at Eilmunds assart, and Father Abbot says take a horse and go quickly, and bring him back word how the forester does.
Brother Cadfael rode for Eilmunds assart in the middle of the afternoon, with the new crutches Brother Simon had cut to the foresters measure slung alongside, good, sturdy props to bear a solid weight.
The hermit’s boy’s come back to say you’re needed at Eilmund’s assart, and Father Abbot says take a horse and go quickly, and bring him back word how the forester does.