noun
Usage: usually capitalized M
: an unincorporated business organization managed like and sometimes treated as a corporation (as for tax purposes) and first popular in Massachusetts in which the business capital is held in trust under a written declaration of trust publicly recorded outlining the powers and duties of the trustees and the rights of the beneficiaries and third persons, which capital or trust property is managed by the trustees for the beneficiaries who are the owners from time to time of transferable certificates resembling corporate stock evidencing an equitable interest in the trust property and the income earned by it — called also business trust, common-law trust