Trespass

In both legal English and everyday English to trespass means entering another person’s property without permission. For example, everyone understands in the United States that a “No Trespassing” sign means “KEEP OUT!”

But trespass can also mean any interference with another person’s rights. For example, trespass to chattels refers to interfering with another person’s personal property. Trespass to chattels is a much more archaic use of the word ‘trespass’ but is still common enough in legal English. In everyday conversation, we would not say that a person who borrowed another person’s car without permission committed a ‘trespass to chattels’ but law students study trespass to chattels when they study tort law and property rights.