landed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of land.

   The pilot landed the jet despite heavy fog over the airport.

   After hours at sea, the small boat finally landed at the harbor.

   Note

   The adjectives share this spelling but are a different word. Those come from land plus the -ed of possession, while this is the ordinary past of the verb. The verb works two ways: intransitive (the plane landed) and transitive (the pilot landed the plane). Only the transitive use has a passive, as in the cargo was landed at dawn. Perfect forms take have: the boat has landed.

2. 2
   adjective

   Holding land in one's possession, typically as a property owner.

   The landed classes derived much of their influence from rural estates.

   By the time he came of age, the family was thoroughly landed and respected.

   Similarpropertied, landowning

   Oppositelandless

   Note

   A noun turned into a description of its owner: Old English ġelandod, land plus -ed, the same suffix that makes bearded mean 'provided with a beard.' Its natural home is the phrase landed gentry, the class whose standing came with its estates. It does not take degrees: someone either is landed or is not, so 'more landed' or 'very landed' sounds wrong.

3. 3
   adjective

   Consisting of land, especially an estate or holding vested in a single owner.

   The bulk of the inheritance was landed property rather than cash.

   Their landed estates stretched for miles along the river valley.

   Note

   Here the word describes the property itself rather than its owner's status: a landed estate, landed property, wealth held as land rather than money. Set beside the sense describing landowners, the test is the noun it modifies. Landed gentry are people who own land, while a landed estate is the land they own. The hint of a single owner keeps it apart from mere territory or terrain.

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