A burden or charge upon an estate or property, so that it cannot be disposed of without being subject to it. A mortgage, a lien for taxes, are examples of encumbrances. 2. These do not affect the possession of the grantee, and may be removed or extinguished by a definite pecuniary value. 3. There are encumbrances of another kind which cannot be so removed, such as easements for example, a highway, or a preexisting right to take water from, the land. Strictly speaking, however, these are not encumbrances, but appurtenances to estates in other lands, or in the language of the civil law, servitudes. See INCUMBRANCE.