Law Dictionary of Legal Terminology

INCHOATE

INCHOATE. That which is not yet completed or finished. Contracts are considered inchoate until they are executed by all the parties who ought to have executed them. For example, a covenant which purports to be tripartite, and is executed by only two of the parties, is incomplete, and no one is bound by it. 2 Halst. 142. Vide Locus paenitentiae.