Eavesdrip

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The eavesdrip is the width of ground around a house or building which receives the rain water dropping from the eaves.

This is sometimes also known as the eavesdrop, but an eavesdrop is also a small, not very visible hole in a building used to listen in (to eavesdrop, as a verb) on the conversation of people awaiting admission to the building. Typically this would allow the occupant to be prepared for unfriendly visitors.

[edit] Legal relevance

By an ancient Anglo-Saxon law, a landowner was forbidden to erect any building at less than 2 feet from the boundary of his land, and was thus prevented from injuring his neighbour's house or property by the dripping of water from his eaves. The law of Eavesdrip has had its equivalent in the Roman stillicidium, which prohibited building up to the very edge of an estate.