homestead : Idioms & Phrases

. (a) A law conferring special privileges or exemptions upon owners of homesteads; esp., a law exempting a homestead from attachment or sale under execution for general debts. Such laws, with limitations as to the extent or value of the property, exist in most of the States. Called also homestead exemption law. (b) Also, a designation of an Act of Congress authorizing and regulating the sale of public lands, in parcels of 160 acres each, to actual settlers. U.S.