Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Fee \Fee\ (f[=e]), n. [OE. fe, feh, feoh, cattle, property,
   money, fief, AS. feoh cattle, property, money; the senses of
   ``property, money,'' arising from cattle being used in early
   times as a medium of exchange or payment, property chiefly
   consisting of cattle; akin to OS. fehu cattle, property, D.
   vee cattle, OHG. fihu, fehu, G. vieh, Icel. f[=e] cattle,
   property, money, Goth. fa['i]hu, L. pecus cattle, pecunia
   property, money, Skr. pa[,c]u cattle, perh. orig., ``a
   fastened or tethered animal,'' from a root signifying to
   bind, and perh. akin to E. fang, fair, a.; cf. OF. fie, flu,
   feu, fleu, fief, F. fief, from German, of the same origin.
   the sense fief is due to the French. [root]249. Cf. {Feud},
   {Fief}, {Fellow}, {Pecuniary}.]
   1. property; possession; tenure. ``Laden with rich fee.''
      --Spenser.

            Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee.
                                                  --Wordsworth.

   2. Reward or compensation for services rendered or to be
      rendered; especially, payment for professional services,
      of optional amount, or fixed by custom or laws; charge;
      pay; perquisite; as, the fees of lawyers and physicians;
      the fees of office; clerk's fees; sheriff's fees; marriage
      fees, etc.

            To plead for love deserves more fee than hate.
                                                  --Shak.

   3. (Feud. Law) A right to the use of a superior's land, as a
      stipend for services to be performed; also, the land so
      held; a fief.

   4. (Eng. Law) An estate of inheritance supposed to be held
      either mediately or immediately from the sovereign, and
      absolutely vested in the owner.

   Note: All the land in England, except the crown land, is of
         this kind. An absolute fee, or fee simple, is land
         which a man holds to himself and his heirs forever, who
         are called tenants in fee simple. In modern writers, by
         fee is usually meant fee simple. A limited fee may be a
         qualified or base fee, which ceases with the existence
         of certain conditions; or a conditional fee, or fee
         tail, which is limited to particular heirs.
         --Blackstone.

   5. (Amer. Law) An estate of inheritance belonging to the
      owner, and transmissible to his heirs, absolutely and
      simply, without condition attached to the tenure.

   {Fee estate} (Eng. Law), land or tenements held in fee in
      consideration or some acknowledgment or service rendered
      to the lord.

   {Fee farm} (Law), land held of another in fee, in
      consideration of an annual rent, without homage, fealty,
      or any other service than that mentioned in the feoffment;
      an estate in fee simple, subject to a perpetual rent.
      --Blackstone.

   {Fee farm rent} (Eng. Law), a perpetual rent reserved upon a
      conveyance in fee simple.

   {Fee fund} (Scot. Law), certain court dues out of which the
      clerks and other court officers are paid.

   {Fee simple} (Law), an absolute fee; a fee without conditions
      or limits.

            Buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a
            quarter.                              --Shak.

   {Fee tail} (Law), an estate of inheritance, limited and
      restrained to some particular heirs. --Burill.