Escrow

n. document (or contract, deed, etc.) held in trust by a third person

Escrow is a legal arrangement in which an asset (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, website, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a condition or conditions in a contract such as payment of a purchase price. Upon that event occurring, the escrow agent will deliver the asset to the proper recipient, otherwise the escrow agent is bound by his or her fiduciary duty to maintain the escrow account.
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Noun
1. a written agreement (or property or money) delivered to a third party or put in trust by one party to a contract to be returned after fulfillment of some condition
(hypernym) written agreement

(n.)
A deed, bond, or other written engagement, delivered to a third person, to be held by him till some act is done or some condition is performed, and then to be by him delivered to the grantee.
  

<security> An arrangement where something (generally money or documents) is held in trust ("in escrow") by a trusted third party until certain agreed conditions are met. In computing the term is used for key escrow and also for source code escrow.
(1999-12-14)