Definition of Assart

In English law. The offense committed in the forest, by pulling up the trees by the roois that are thickets and coverts for deer, and making the ground plain as arable land. It differs from waste, In that waste ls the cutting down of coverts which may grow again, whereas assart is the plucking them up by the roots and utterly destroying them, so that they can never afterward grow. This is not an offense if done with liconse to convert forest into tillage ground. Consult Manwood'a Forest Laws, p5 I, p. l'7l. Wharton.