Black's Law Dictionary

The act of persuading; the act of influencing the mind by arguments or reasons offered or by anything that moves the mind or passions or inclines the will to a determination. See M

To belong or relate to, whether by nafure, appointment or custom. See People v. Chicago Theological Seminary, 174 III. 177, 51 N. B. 198.

In Spanish law. The claim or right which one has to the property in anything; the territory which belongs to any one by way of jurisdiction or property; that which is acoessory or

The fourth part of an acre. Cowell.

A pittance; a small portion of aims or victuals. Alse certain poor scholars of the Isle of Man. Cowell.

Applicable; relevant. Evidence is called "pertinent" when it is directed to the issue or matters in dispute, and legitimately tends to prove the allegations of the party offering i

In Scotch law. Appurtenances. "Paris and pertinents" are formal words in old deeds and charters. 1 Forb. Inst, pt 2, pp. 112, 118.

In Lat By the whole court. A common phrase in the old reports.

Lu Fr. By the whole, and not by the moiety. Where an estate in fee is given to a man and his wife, they cannot take the estate by moieties, but both are seised of the entirety, per

In the English ecclesiastical courts, a "suit for perturbation of seat" is the technical name for an action growing out of a disturbance or infringement of one's right to a pew or

A woman who breaks the peace.

Lat In the civil law. By an aggregate or whole; as an entirety. The term described the acquisition of an entire estate by one act or fact, as distinguished from the acquisition of

In Lat In old practice. By gage. Words in the old writs of attachment or pone, 3 Bl. Comm. 280.

By various acts experience frames the law. 4 Inst. 50.

Lat By words of the future [tense.] A phrase applied to contracts of marriage, 1 Bl. Comm. 439 ; 2 Kent, Comm. 87.

Lat By words of the present [tense.] A phrase applied to contracts of marriage. 1 BL Co.min. 489.

A verdict whereby the jury refuse to follow the direction of the judge on a point of law.

In old English law. The court or yard of the king's palace at Westminster. Also an afternoon exercise or moot for the instruction of students. Cowell; Blount.

Lat In old English law. By view of the church; under the supervision of the church. The disposition of intestates' goods per visum ecclesiæ was one of the articles confirmed to the

Lat In old English law. By the llving voice; the same with viva voce. Bract fol. 95.

In a contract, is equivalent to the word "annually." Curtiss v. Howell, 39 N. Y. 211.

A weight of two hundred and fifty-six pounds. Cowell.

In England. A toll charged for weighing avoirdupois goods other than wool. 2 Chit. Com. Law, 16.

In Spanish law. Coroner. White, New Recop. b. 1, tit. 1, § 3.

Lab Of the worst example.

Mast of oaks, etc. or money taken for mast or feeding hogs. Cowell.

Merchandise which takes up a good deal of room in a ship. Cowell.

Lat In old English law. A demandant; the plaintiff in a real action. Bract, fols. 102, 106b.

An ancient levy or tax of a penny on each house throughout England, paid to the pope. It was called "Peter-pence," because collected on the day of St. Peter, ad vincula; by the Sax

Fr. Small; minor; inconsiderable. Used in several compounds, and sometimes written "petty." —Petit cape. A judicial writ, issued in the old1 actions for the recovery of land, requi

A judicial writ, issued in the old1 actions for the recovery of land, requiring the sheriff to take possession of the estate, where the tenant, after having appeared in answer to t

Used in contradistinction from the grand assize, which was a jury to decide on questions of property. Petiti assize, a jury to decide on questions of possession. Britt, c. 42; Gian

Lat. In the civil law. The plaintiff's statement of his cause of action in an action in rem. Calvin. In old English law. Petition or demand; the count in a real action; the form of

A written address, embodying an application or prayer from the person or persons preferring it, to the power, body or person to whom it is presented, for the exercise of his or the

L. Fr. In English practice. A petition of right; a form of proceeding to obtain restitution from the crown of either real or personal property, being of use where the crown is in p

One who presents a petition to a court, officer or legislative body. In legal proceedings begun by petition, the person against whom action or relief la prayed or who opposes the p

A paper filed in a court of bankruptcy, or with the clerk, by a debtor praying for the benefits of the bankruptcy act, or by creditors alleging the commission of an act oi bankrupt

The creditor at whose instance an adjudication of bankruptcy is made against a bankrupt.

See Petition.

See Petition.

In logic. Begging the question, which is the taking of a thing for true or for granted, and drawing conclusions from it as such, when it is really dubious, perhaps false or at leas

The ordinary jury of twelve men for the trini of a civil or criminal action. So called to distinguish it from the grand jury. A petit jury is a body of twelve men impaneled and swo

A droitural action ; that is, one in which the plaintiff seeks to establish and enforce, by an appropriate legal proceeding, his right of property or his title, to the subject-matt

In English law. The crime committed by a wife in killing her husband, or a servant his lord or master, or an ecclesiastic his lord or ordinary. 4 Bl. Comm. 75. —Treason-felony, und

Lat In Roman law. I request A common word by which a fideicommissum or trust, was created in a wllL Inst 2, 24, 3.

A stone weight. Cowell.

A lawyer who is em ployed in a small or mean business, or who carries on a disreputable business by unprincipled or dishonorable means. "We think that the term 'pettifogging shyste

Small, minor, of less or inconsiderable importance, he English form of "petit," and sometimes used instead of that word in such compounds as "petty jury," "petty larceny," and "pet

In English law. An office in the court of chancery, for suits against attorneys and officers of the court, and for process and proceedings by extent on statutes, recognizances, ad

Inferior officers in the naval service, of various ranks and kinds, corresponding to the non-commissioned officers in the army. See U. S. v. Fuller, 160 U. S. 593 ,16 Sup. Ct. 386,

In English law. A special or petty session la sometimes kept in corporations and counties at large by a few justices, for dispatching smaller business in the neighborhood between t

An inclosed seat in a church. O'Hear v. De Goesbriand, 33 Vt. 606, 80 Am. Dec. 653; Trustees of Third Presbyterian Congregation v. Andruss, 21 N. J. Law, 328; Gay v. Baker, 17 Mass

A watch-tower, light-house or sea-mark.

In medical jurisprudence. An inflammation of the veins, which may originate in septicœmia (bacterial bloodpoisoning) or pyæmia (poisoning from pus), and is capable of being transmi

Any person who makes for sale photographs, ambrotypes, daguerrotypes or pictures, by the action of light. Act Cong. July 13, 1866, § 9; 14 St. at Large, 120.

An abbrevlation for "pro hoc vice," for this turn, for this purpose or occasion.

A jailer.

Relating or pertaining to the body, as distinguished from the mind or soul or the emotions; material, substantive, having an objective existence, as distinguished from imaginary or

See Disability ;

In the law of evidence. A fact having a physical existence, as distinguished from a mere conception of the mind; one which is visible, audible, or palpable; such as the sound of a

Force applied to the body; actual violence. State v. Wells, 31 Conn. 212.

In the law of marriage and divorce, impotence, inability to accomplish sexual coition, arising from incurable physical imperfection or malformation. Anonymous, 89 Ala. 291, 7 South

Bodily harm or hurt, excluding mental distress, fright, or emotional disturbance. Deming v. Chicago, etc., R. Co., 80 Mo. App. 157.

A condition in which a person is absolutely compelled to act in a particular way by overwhelming superior force; as distingnished from moral necessity, which arises where there is

A practitioner of medicine ; a person duly authorized or licensed to treat discases; one lawfully engaged in the practice of medicine, without reference to any particular school. S

An obsolete term for an enormous crime.

Lat. A pious fraud; a subterfuge or evasion considered moraliy justifiable on account of the ends sought to be promoted. Particularly applied to an evasion or disregard of the laws

A robber; a plunderer.

Money paid at fairs for breaking ground for booths.

In Scotch law. Petty theft; Stealing of trifles, punishable arbitrarily. Bein

By members of a trade union on strike, conslats in posting members at all the approaches to the. works struck against, for the purpose of observing and reporting the workmen going

A small parcel of land inclosed with a hedge, which, in some countries, is called a "pingle." Enc. Lond.

An instrument by which locks are opened without a key.

A narrow slip of land running into a corner.

A thief who secretly steals money or other property from the person of another.

See Court of Pied-poudre.

A structure extending from the solid land out into the water of a river, lake, barbor, etc., to afford convenient passage for persons and property to and from vessels along the sid

The duty for maintaining piers and harbors.

Lat. In the civll law. The contract of pledge; and also the obligation of such contracti

Lat. In the civil law. An action of pledge or founded on a pledge, which was either directa, for the debtor, after payment of the debt or contraria, tor the creditor. Heinecc. Elem

In the civll law. A contract of pledge, hypothecation, or mortgage of realty.

Lat. In Roman law. This was the name of one of the legis actiones. It was employed only in certain particular kinds of pecuniary cases, and consisted in that the creditor, without

Lat In the civll law. A pledge or pawn; a delivery of a thing to a creditor, as security for a debt. Also a thing delivered to a creditor as security for a debt.

In old English law. That side of coined money which was called "pile," because it was the side on which there was an impression of a church built on piles. Fleta, llb. 1, a 39.

In the ancient torest laws. An arrow which had a round knob a little above the head, to hinder it from going far into the mark. Cowell.

To pilfer, In the plain and popular sense, means to steal. To charge another with pilfering is to charge him with stealing, and is slander. Becket v. Sterrett, 4 Blackf. (Ind.) 499

One who steals petty things.

Plunder; the forcible taking of private property by an invading or conquering army from the enemy's subjects. American Ins. Co. v. Bryan, 26 Wend. (N. Y.) 573, 37 Am. Dec. 278.

A frame erected on a pillar, and made with holes and movable boards, through which the heads and hands of criminals were put.

A partlchlar officer serving on board a ship during the course of a voyage, and having the charge of the helm and the ship's route; or a person taken on board at any particular pla

The navigation of a vessel by a pilot; the duty of a pilot. The charge or compensation allowed for piloting a vessel.

In English law. Boards of commissioners appointed and authorized for the regulation and appointment of pllots, each board having jurisdiction within a prescribed district

A very singular and odious kind of tenure mentioned by the old writers, "Wilhelmus Eoppeshort tenet dimidiam virgatam terræ per servitium custodiendi sex damisellas, scii, meretric

In old English law. Butler ; the king's butler, whose office it was to select out of the cargo of every vessel laden with wine, one cask at the prow and another at the stem, for th

An allowance set apart by a husband for the personal expenses ot hls wife, for her dress and pocket money.

Poundage of cattle.

A pounder of cattle; a pound-keeper.

Examples hurt more than crimen.

The originator or instigator of a crime is a worse offender than the actual perpetrator of it. 5 Coke, 99a. Applied to the crime of subornation of perjury. Id.