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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  • BUTTS AND BOUNDS
    A phrase used in conveyancing, to describe the end lines or circumscribing lines of a certain piece of land. The phrase "metes and bounds" has the same meaning.
  • BUTTY
    A local term in the north of England, for the associate or deputy of another ; also of things used in common.
  • BUY
    To acquire the ownership of property by giving an accepted price or consideration therefor; or by agreeing to do so; to acquire by the payment of a price or value; to purchase. Webster. -Buy in. To purchase, at public sale, property which is one's own or which one has caused More...
  • BY
    This word, when descriptively used in a grant does not mean "in immediate contact with," but "near" to, the object to which it relates; and "near" is a relative term, meaning, when used in land patents, very unequal and different distances. Wells v. Mfg. Co., 48 N. H. 491. A More...
  • BY-BIDDING
    See BID.
  • BY BILL, BY BILL WITHOUT WRIT
    In practice. Terms anciently used to designate actions commenced by original bill, as distinguished from those commenced by original writ, and applied in modern practice to suits commenced by capias ad respondendum. 1 Arch. Pr. pp. 2, 337; Harkness v. Harkness, 5 HiU (N. Y.) 213.
  • BY ESTIMATION
    In conveyancing. A term used to indicate that the quantity of land as stated is estimated only, not exactly measured; has the same meaning and effect as the phrase "more or less." Tarbell v. Bowman, 103 Mass. 341; Mendenhall v. Steckel, 47 Md. 453, 28 Am. Rep. 481; Hays v. More...
  • BY GOD AND MY COUNTRY
    In old English criminal practice. The established formula of reply by a prisoner, when arraigned at the bar, to the question, "Culprit, how wilt thou be tried?"
  • BY-LAWS
    Regulations, ordinances, or rules enacted by a private corporation for its own government A by-law is a rule or law of a corporation, for its government, and is a legislative act and the solemnities and sanction required by the charter must be observed. A resolution is not necessarily a by-law More...
  • BY LAW MEN
    In English law. The chief men of a town, representing the inhabitants.
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