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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  • DR.
    An abbreviation for "doctor;" also, in commercial usage, for "debtor," indicating the items or particulars in a bill or in an account-book chargeable against the person to whom the bill Is rendered or in whose name the account stands, as opposed to "Cr." ("credit" or "creditor"), which indicates the items More...
  • DRACHMA
    A term employed in old pleadings and records, to denote a groat Townsh. PL 180. An Athenian silver coin, of the value of about fifteen cents.
  • DRACO REGIS
    The standard, ensign, or military colors borne in war by the ancient kings of England, having the figure of a dragon painted thereon.
  • DRACONIAN LAWS
    A code of laws prepared by Draco, the celebrated lawgiver of Athens. These laws were exceedingly severe, and the term is now sometimes applied to any laws of unusual harshness.
  • DRAFT
    The common term for a bill of exchange; as being drawn by one person on another. Hinnemann v. Rosenback, 39 N. Y. 100; Douglass v. Wilkeson, 6 Wend. (N. Y.) 643. An order for the payment of money drawn by one person on another. It is said to be a More...
  • DRAFTSMAN
    Any one who draws or frames a legal document, e. g., a will, conveyance, pleading, etc.
  • DRAGOMAN
    An interpreter employed in the east and particularly at the Turkish court.
  • DRAIN
    v. To make dry; to draw off water; to rid land of its superfluous moisture by adapting or improving natural watercourses and supplementing them, when necessary, by artificial ditches. People v. Tarks, 58 Cal. 639.
  • DRAIN
    n. A trench or ditch to convey water from wet land; a channel through which water may flow off. The word has no technical legal meaning. Any hollow space in the ground, natural or artificial, where water is collected and passes off, is a ditch or drain. Goldthwait v. East More...
  • DRAM
    In common parlance, this term means a drink of some substance containing alcohol, something which can produce intoxication. Lacy v. State, 32 Tex. 228. -Dram-shop. A drinking saloon, where liquors are sold to be drunk on the premises. Wright v. People, 101 111. 129; Brockway v. State, 36 Ark. 636; More...
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