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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  • PURCHASE
    The word, "purchase" is used in law in contradistinction to "descent," and means any other mode of acquiring real property than by the common course of Inheritance. But it is also much used in its more restricted vernacular sense, (that of buying for a sum of money,) especially iu modern More...
  • PURCHASER
    One who acquires real property in any other mode than by descent One who acquires either real or personal property by buying it for a price in money; a buyer; vendee. In the construction of registry acts, the term "purchaser" is usually taken in its technical legal sense. It means More...
  • PURE
    Absolute; complete; simple; unmixed ; unqualified; free from conditions or restrictions; as in the phrases pure charity, pure debt, pure obligation, pure plea, pure villenage, as to which see the nouns.
  • PURGATION
    The act of cleansing or exonerating one's self of a crime, accusation, or suspicion of guilt, by denying the charge on oath or by ordeal. Canonical purgation was made by the party's taking his own oath that he was innocent of the charge, which was supported by the oath of More...
  • PURGE
    To cleanse; to clear; to clear or exonerate from some charge or imputation^ of guilt, or from a contempt -Purged of partial counsel. In Scotch practice. Cleared of having been partially advised. A term applied to the preliminary examination of a witness, in which he is sworn and examined whether More...
  • PURGE DE HYPOTHQUES
    Fr. In French law. An expression used to de-. scribe the act of freeing an estate from the mortgages and privileges with which it le charged, observing the formalities prescribed by law. Duverger.
  • PURLIEU
    In English law. A space of land near a royal forest which, being severed from it was made purlieu; that is, pure or free from the forest laws. -Purlieu-men. Those who have ground witb> in the purlieu to the yearly value of 40s. a year freehold are licensed to hunt More...
  • PURLOIN
    To steal; to commit larceny or theft. McCann v. U. S., 2 Wyo. 298.
  • PURPART
    A share; a part in a division ; that part of an estate, formerly held! in common, which is by partition allotted to any one of the parties. The word was anciently applied to the shares falling separately to coparceners upon a division or partition of the estate, and was More...
  • PURPORT
    Meaning; import; substantial meaning; substance. The "purport" of an instrument means the substance of it as It appears on the face of the instrument, and is distinguished from "tenor," which means an exact copy. See Dana v. State, 2 Ohio St 93; State v. Sherwood, 90 Iowa, 550, 58 N. More...
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