Key
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KEY. An instrument made for shutting and opening a lock.
2. The keys of a house are considered as real estate, and descend to
the heir with the inheritance. But see 5 Blackf. 417.
3. When the keys of a warehouse are delivered to a purchaser of goods
locked up there, with a view of effecting a delivery of such goods, the
delivery is complete. The doctrine of the civil law is the same. Dig. lib.
41, t. 1, 1. 9, Sec. 6; and lib. 18, t. 1, 1. 74.
KEY, estates. A wharf at which to land goods from, or to load them in a vessel. This word is now generally spelled Quay, from the French, quai.
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.