purveyance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical British law: the Crown's right to requisition provisions, transport, or other goods and services for royal use at fixed prices

   Parliament abolished purveyance after repeated complaints that royal officers underpaid for supplies.

2. 2
   noun

   formal: the act of procuring or supplying provisions or other goods

   The contractor was responsible for the purveyance of food and fuel to the garrison.

From Middle English purveiaunce and Anglo-French purveaunce, related to purveer ('to provide beforehand'). The general sense of supplying provisions developed a specific legal sense for the English Crown's compulsory procurement of goods and services.

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