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.

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  • ABEYANCE
    In the law of estates. Expectation; waiting; suspense; remembrance and contemplation in law. Where there is no person in existence in whom an inheritance can vest, it is said to be in abeyance, that is, in expectation; the law considering it as always potentially existing, and ready to vest whenever More...
  • ABIATICUS, OR AVIATICUS
    L. Lat In feudal law. A grandson; the son of a son. Spelman; Lib. Feud., Baraterii, tit 8, cited. Id.
  • ABIDE
    To "abide the order of the court" means to perform, execute, or conform to such order. Jackson v. State, 30 Kan. 88, 1 Pac. 317; Hodge v. Hodgdon, 8 Cush. (Mass.) 294. See McGarry v. State, 37 Kan. & 14 Pac. 482. A stipulation in an arbitration bond that the More...
  • ABIDING BY
    In Scotch law. A judicial declaration that the party abides by the deed on which he founds, In an action where the deed or writing is attacked as forged. Unless this be done, a decree that the deed Is false will be pronounced. Pat Comp. It has the effect of More...
  • ABIGEATUS
    Lat. In the civil law. The offense of stealing or driving away cattle. See ABIGEUS.
  • ABIGERE
    Lat. In the civil law. To drive away. Applied to those who drove away animals with the intention of stealing them. Applied, also, to the similar offense of cattle stealing on the borders between England and Scotland. See ABIGEUS. To drive out; to expel by force; to produce abortion. Dig. More...
  • ABIGEUS
    Lat. (Pl., abigei, or more rarely abigeatores.) In the civil law. A stealer of cattle; one who drove or drew away (subtraxit) cattle from their pastures, as horses or oxen from the herds, and made booty of them, and who followed this as a business or trade. The term was More...
  • ABILITY
    When a statute makes it a ground of divorce that the husband has neglected to provide for his wife the common necessaries of life, having the ability to provide the same, the word "ability" has reference to the possession by the husband of the means in property to provide such More...
  • ABISHERING, OR ABISHERSING
    Quit of amercements. It originally signified a forfeiture or amercement and is more properly mishering, mishersing, or miskering, according to Spelman. It has since been termed a liberty of freedom, because, wherever this word is used in a grant, the persons to whom the grant is made have the forfeitures More...
  • ABJUDICATIO
    In old English law. The depriving of a thing by the judgment of a court; a putting out of court; the same as forisjudicatio, forjudgment, forjudger. Co. Litt 100a, b; Townsh. PI. 49.
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