Legal Term Dictionary

Search our free database of thousands of legal terms. The easiest-to-read, most user-friendly guide to legal terms.This dictionary is from the early 20th century and is not to be construed as legal advice.

Search
  • ALER A DIEU
    L. Fr. In old practice. To be dismissed from court; to go quit. Literally, "to go to God."
  • ALER SANS JOUR
    In old practice, a phrase used to indicate the final dismissal of a case from court without continuance. "To go without day."
  • ALEU
    Fr. In French feudal law. An allodial estate, as distinguished from a feudal estate or benefice.
  • ALFET
    A cauldron into which boiling water was poured, in which a criminal plunged his arm up to the elbow, and there held it for some time, as an ordeal. Du Cange.
  • ALGARUM MARIS
    Probably a corruption of Laganum maris. lagan being a right, in the middle ages, like jetsam and flotsam, by which goods thrown from a vessel in distress became the property of the king, or the lord on whose shores they were stranded. Spelman; Jacob; Du Cange.
  • ALGO
    Span. In Spanish law. Property. White, Nov. Recop. b. 1, tit. 5, c. 3. s 4.
  • ALIA ENORMIA
    Other wrongs. The name given to a general allegation of injuries caused by the defendant with which the plaintiff in an action of trespass under the common-law practice concluded his declaration. Archb. Criin. PI. 604.
  • ALIAMENTA
    A liberty of passage, open way, water-course, etc., for the tenant's accommodation. Kitchen.
  • ALIAS
    Lat. Otherwise; at another time; in another manner; formerly. —Alias dictus. "Otherwise called." This phrase (or its shorter and more usual, form, alias,) when placed between two names in a pleading or other paper indicates that the same person is known by both those names. A fictitious name assumed by More...
  • ALIBI
    Lat. In criminal law. Elsewhere; in another place. A term used to express that mode of defense to a criminal prosecution, where the party accused, in order to prove that he could not have committed the crime with which he is charged, offers evidence to show that he was in More...
Showing 690 of 1352