deeds

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of deed.

   The community honored her many good deeds at the ceremony.

   The lawyer reviewed the property deeds before the sale closed.

   Note

   One regular plural carries two quite different nouns. The first is acts: good deeds, brave deeds, and deeds set against mere words or deliberation. The second is legal papers, meaning documents executed under seal or before a witness, such as the deeds to a house. Context nearly always settles which one is meant. A person does deeds of the first kind and holds deeds of the second.

2. 2
   verbcolloquial

   Third-person singular simple present of deed.

   If the owner deeds the lakeside property to her children, it no longer belongs to her.

   Whenever a member moves away, the cooperative deeds the plot back to the trust.

   Note

   Only the property meaning has become a verb. Nobody deeds a kindness, even though the plural noun can mean good acts. The verb takes the property as its object and usually uses to for whoever receives it: she deeds the house to her son. Because the verb is informal shorthand for transferring real property by deed, careful legal prose often keeps the fuller phrase.

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