(A) conveyancing. A voluntary conveyance; that is, a conveyance not founded on the consideration of money or blood. The word denotes rather the motive of the conveyance; so that a feoffment or grant may be called a gift when gratuitous. A gift is of the same nature as a settlement; neither denotes a form of assurance, but the nature of the transaction. The operative words of this conveyance are do or dedi. The maker of this instrument is called the donor, and he to whom it is made, the donee. (B) contracts. The act by which the owner of a thing, voluntarily transfers the title and possession of the same, from himself to another person who accepts it, without any consideration. It differs from a grant, sale, or barter in this, that in each of these cases there must be a consideration, and a gift, as the definition states, must be without consideration. 2. The manner of making the gift may be in writing, or verbally, and, as far as personal chattels are concerned, they are equally binding. But real estate must be transferred by deed. 3. There must be a transfer made with an intention of passing the title, and delivering the possession of the thing given, and it must be accepted by the donee. 4. The transfer must be without consideration, for if there be the least consideration, it will change the contract into a sale or barter, if possession be delivered; or if not, into an executory contract. 5. Gifts are divided into gifts inter vivos, and gifts causa mortis; and also into simple or proper gifts; that is, such as are to take immediate effect, without any condition; and qualified or improper gifts, or such as derive their force upon the happening, of some condition or contingency; as, for example, a donatio causa mortis.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A voluntary conveyance of land, or transfer of goods, from one person to another, made gratuitously, and not upon any consideration of blood or money. 2 Bl. Comm. 440 ; 2 Steph. Comm. 102; 2 Kent, Comm. 437. And see Ingram v. Colgan, 106 Cal. 113, 38 Pac. 315, 28 L. R. A. 187, 46 Am. St. Rep. 221; Gray v. Barton, 55 N. Y. 72. 14 Am. Rep. 181; Williamson v. Johnson, 62 Vt. 378, 20 Ati. 279, 9 L. R. A. 277, 22 Am. St. Rep. 117; Flanders v. Blandy, 45 Ohio St. 113, 12 N. E. 321.
A gift is a transfer of personal property, made voluntarily and without consideration. Civil Code Cal. I 1146.
In popular language, a voluntary conveyance or assignment is called a “deed of gift”Gift” and “advancement” are sometimes used interchangeably as expressive of the same operation. But, while an advancement is always a gift, a gift is very frequently not an advancement. In re Dewees’ Estate, 3 Brewst (Pa.) 314.
In English law. A conveyance of lands in tail; a conveyance of an estate tail in which the operative words are “I give,” or “I have given.” 2 Bl. Comm. 316; 1 Steph. Comm. 473. Absolute sift, as distinguished from one made in contemplation of death, is one by which the donee becomes in the lifetime of the donor the absolute owner of the thing given, whereas a donatio mortis causa leaves the whole title in the donor, unless the event occurs (the death of the donor) which is to divest him. Buecker v. Carr, 60 N. J. Eq. 300, 47 Atl. 34. As distinguished from a gift in trust, it is one where not only the legal title but the beneficial ownership as well is vested in the donee. Watkins v. Bigelow. 93 Minn. 210, 100 N. W. 1104. Gift enterprise. A scheme for the division or distribution of certain articles of property, to be determined by chance, among those who have taken shares in the scheme. The phrase has attained such a notoriety as to justify a court in taking judicial notice of what is meant and understood by it.