Relet

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To lease or rent something again to a new tenant or renter; to renew a rental agreement with a different individual or party involved; the act of making a lease available for re-occupation by another occupant after a previous term has ended
2. The process of granting a lease to someone new after the prior tenant has vacated the property; the re-establishment of rental agreements with new parties; an action involving the reassignment of rental rights for a property
3. Engaging in the act of leasing a property anew to a different occupant; the reissue of a rental contract following its expiration; a method of reallocating rental space to another tenant

Etymology: "Relet" is a plain compound: the prefix "re-", meaning "again" or "back," attached to "let," the old verb meaning to lease or rent out property. To let a house is to rent it to someone, so to relet it is to rent it out again, whether to the same tenant after a lease expires or to a new occupant. The "let" half has a long lineage of its own. It traces back through Old English "lǣtan," meaning to allow or permit, and the sense of letting property for rent developed from that idea of allowing someone to occupy a space. That is why "let" can mean both "allow" and "rent," a double meaning many English speakers never notice. The "re-" prefix is older still, descending from Latin "re-," and it arrived in English through Old French, which is why it appears in so many borrowed verbs. "Relet" itself is attested in Middle English, where it passed into the language already built from these two parts.

Synonyms: relet, sublet, lease again, rent again

Antonyms: terminate lease, repossess, evict