VADIUM MORTUUM, contracts. A mortgage or dead-pledge; it is a security given
by the borrower of a sum of money, by which he grants to the lender an
estate in fee, on condition that if the money be not repaid at the time
appointed, the estate so put in pledge shall continue to the lender as dead
or gone from the mortgagor. 2 Bl. Com. 257; 1 Pow. Mortg. 4.