the right to take another's property if an obligation is not discharged
"The bank placed a lien on his house because he failed to pay off the mortgage."
A tendon.
"The doctor suspected that his swollen abdomen was caused by an enlarged lien due to malaria."
The spleen.
Alternative form of lain
"The old log was left to lie in the sun, but my grandfather always spelled it as lien when he wrote about it."
The word lien comes from the Old French term meaning a physical tie or rope. It entered English with its current legal sense of a claim on property as an early extension of that original idea to secure debts.