Black's Law Dictionary

An occasional circuit appointed for the trial of prisoners, in England, and in some cases of civll causes, between Michaelmas and Hilary terms.

The season betwcen 11th November and 23d April, which ls excepted from the liberty of commoning in certain forests. St. 23 Car. II. <i. 3.

In Saxon law. Half a hide of land or sixty acres.

To know; to learn; to be informed. Used only in the infinitive, to-wit, which term is equivalent to "that is to say," "namely," or "videlicet."

The purgation from an offense by the oath of the requisite number of witnesses.

In Saxon law. Wise men; persens of information, especially in the laws; the king's advisers; members of the king's council; the optimates or principal men of the kingdom. 1 Spence,

Under Sts. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 8, and 1 Jac. I. c. 12, the offense of witchcraft or supposed intercourse with evll spirits, was punishable with dcath. These acts were not repealed til

Sax. A punishment, pain, penalty, mnict or criminal flne. Cowell.

A luxation of the West Saxons, imposed by the public council of the kingdom.

In Saxon law. The Judgment of the county court or other court of competent jnrisdiction, on the title to property, real or personal. 1 Spence, Eq. Jut. 22.

The assembly of wise men. This was the great national council or parliament of the Saxons in England, comprising the noblemen, high ecclesiastics, and other great thanes of the kin

The chiefs of the Saxon lords or thanes, their nobles, and wise men.

This phrase, used in a contract of sale, Implies that the purchaser assumes the risk of nil defects and imperfections, provide they dothot destroy the identity of the thing sold.

In practice. The withdrawing of one of the twelve jurors from the bax, with the result that, the jury baing now found to be incomplete, no further proceedings can be had in the cau

In practice. The withdrawing by a plaintiff of the nisi prius or trial record filed in a cause, just before the trial is entered upon, for the purpose of preventing the cause from

In practice. A taking by way of reprisal; a taking or a reprisal of other goods, in lieu of those that were formerly token and eloigned or withholden. 2 Inst. 141. A reciprocal dis

An apostate or perfidious renegade. Cowell.

A term used to signify that an adjournment or continuance is indefinite or final or that no subsequent time is fixed for another meeting or for further proceedings. See Sine Die.

The effect of the insertion of this clause in a lease for Ilfe is to give the tenant the right to cut timbsr on the estate, without making himself thereby liable to an action for w

Where an offer or admission is made "without preju-dico," or a motion is denied or a bill in equity dismissed "without prejudice," it is meant as a declaration that no rights or pr

This phrase, used in making a qualified indorsement of a negotiable instrument, signifies that the indorser means to save himself from liability to subsequent holders, and is a not

A term applied in a sale by auction, indicating that no price is reserved.

Without limit; without any specified number.

In pleading. Formal words used in pleadings by way of traverse, particularly by way of special traverse, (q. v.,) Importing an express denial of some matter of fact alleged in a pr

In pleading. A technical phrase indispensable in describing a forcible entry in an indictment. No other word or circumlocution will answer the same purpose. Rex v. Wilson, 8 Term R

n. In the primary sense of the word, a witness is a person who has knowledge of an event. As the most direct mode of acquiring knowledge of an event is by seeing it, "witness" has

In a deed or other formal instrument, is that part which comes after the recitals, or, where there are no recitals, after the parties. It usually com. mences with a reference to th

Means with knowledge and by design, excluding only cases which are the result of accident or forgetfulness, and including cases where one does an unlawful act through an erroneous

Sax. In England. A down or champaign ground, hilly and void of wood. Cowell; Blount.

In old English law. This term was used as descriptive of the condition of an outlaw. Such persons were said to carry a wolf's head, (caput lupinum;) for lf caught alive they were t

All the females of the human spectes. All such females who have arrived at the age of puberty. Dig. 50, 16, 13.

Sax. In old records. A field. Spelman; Cowell.

In old records. A certain quantity of oats or other grain, paid by customary tenants to the lord, for llberty to pick up dead or broken wood. Cowell.

In old English law. Money paid for the liberty of inking wood in a forest. Cowell. Immunity from such payment. Spelman.

A license or right to cut down, remove, and use standing timber on a given estate or tract of land. Osborne v. O'Reilly, 42 N. J. Eq. 467, 9 Atl. 209.

In forest law. The old name of the court of attachments; otherwise called the "Forty-Days Court." Cowell; 3 Bl. Comm. 71.

A court held twice in the year in the forest of Clun, in Shropshire, for determining all matters of wood and agistments. Cowell.

A forest; land covered with a large and thick collection of natural forest trees. The old books say that a grant of "all his woods" (omnes boscos suos) will pass the land, as well

The name of an old prison in London.

Officers of the forest, whose duty consists in looking after the wood and vert and venison, and preventing offenses relating to the same. Manw. 189.

The seat of the lord chancellor of England in the house of lords, being a large square bag of wool, without back or arms, covered with red cloth. Webster; Brande.

In medical jurisprudence. A popular name for malignant anthrax, a disease characterized by malignant pustules or carbuncles, caused by infection by putrid animal matter containing

As used in law, this word generally signifies the technical terms and phrases appropriate to partichlar instruments or aptly fitted to the expression of a particular intention in l

Words used in a technical sense; words scientifically fit to carry the sense assigned them.

See Limitation.

Words ,of purchase are words which denote the person who is to take the estate. Thus, if I grant land to A. for twenty-one years, and after the determination of that term to A.'s h

To create an estate tail by deed, it is necessary that words of procreation should be used in order to confine the estate to the descendants of the first grantee, as in the usual f

See Purchase.

The name of one of the common counis in actions of assumpsit, bsing for work and labar done and materials' furnished by the plaintiff for the defendant.

These terms mean an animal of the horse kind, which can be rendered fit for service, as well as one of maturer age and in actual use. Winfrey v. Zimmerman, 8 Bush (Ky.) 587.

A place where convicts (or paupers) are confined and kept at labor.

In settling lay-days or days of demurrage, sometimes the contract specifies "working days;" in the computation, Sundays and custom-house holldaya are excluded. 1 Bell, Comin. 577.

One who labors; one who is employed to do business for another.

This term means sometimes a mill, factory or other establishment for performing industrial labar of any sort, (South St. Joseph Land Ch v. Pitt, 114 Mo. 135, 21 S. W. 449,) and som

This term sometimes denotes ali persons whatsoever who may have, claim or acquire an interest in the subject-matter; as in saying that a judgment in rem binds "all the world."

The act of offering honor and adoration to the Divine Being. Religious exercises participated in by a number of persens assembled for that purpose, the disturbance of which Is a st

In the English law of descent. A term applied to males, expressive of the preference given to them over females. See 2 Bl. Comm. 234240.

A certain quantity of land so called in the manor of Kingsland, in Hereford. The tenants are called "worthies." Wharton.

A curtilage or country farm.

In criminni cases, the definition of a "wound" is an injury to the person by which the skin is broken. State v. Leonard, 22 Mo. 451; Moriarty v. Brooks, 6 Car. & P. 684. "In legal

An aggravated species of assault and battery, consisting in one person giving another some dangerous hurt 3 Bl. Comm. 121.

A wreck of the sea signifies those goods which are driven to shore from a shipwreck.

Exempt from the forfeiture of shipwrecked goods and vessels to the king. Cowell.

At common law. Such goods as after a shipwreck are cast upon the land by the sea, and, as lying within the territory of some county, do not belong to the jurisdiction of the admira

persons appointed by the English lord chancellor under the merchant shipping act, 1876, (section 29,) to hold investigations at the request of the board of trade into losses, aband

A precept In writing, couched in the form of a letter, running in the name of the king, president or state, issuing from a court of justice, and sealed with its seal, addressed to

See De Bono et Malo; Assize.

In English law. The name of a writ formerly Issued by the secular courts, for the execution, by burning, of a man who had been convicted in the ecclesiastical courts of heresy.

This is the name of an old writ which directs the sheriff to inquire whether a man be an Idiot or not. The inquisition is to be made by a jury of twelve men. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 232.

A writ which lay for a widow, against the executor of her deceased husband, to compel the executor to set off to her a third part of the decedent's personalty, after payment of his

In England. An officer of the exchequer whose duty it was to write upon the tallies the letters of tellers' bills.

In Scotch law. An officer nearly corresponding to an attorney at law, in English and American .practice. "Writers to the signet," called also "clerks to the signet," derive their n

The expression of ideas by letters visible to the eye. Clason v. Bailey, 14 Johns. (N. Y.) 491. The giving an outward and objective form to a contract, will, etc., by means of lett

The technical name by which a l)ond is described in plcading. Denton v. Adams, 6 Vt. 40.

The name of a writ which issues from the court of chan-cory, in aid of the execution of a Judgment at law, to put the complainant into possession of lands adjudged to him, when the

In English practice. A writ whereby certain persons (usually the clerk of assize and his subordinate officers) are directed to associate themselves with the justices and serjeants;

A writ employed to enforce obedience to an order or judgment of the court. It commands the sheriff to attach the disobedient party and to have him before the court to answer hls co

A writ which anciently lay against persons who had conspired to injure the plaintiff, under the same circumstances which wonid now give him an action on the case.

A writ which lies where a party claims damages for breach of covenant; i. e., of a promise under seal.

A writ which lies where the party claims the recovery of a debt; l. e„ a liquidated or certain sum of money alleged to be due to him.

The name of a writ which lies where one man bas done anything in the name of another, by which the latter is damnified and deceived. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 95, E.

A writ of execution employed to enforce a Judgment for the delivery of chattels. It commands the sheriff to cause the chattels mentioned in the writ to be returned to the person wh

A writ which lies where a party claims the specific recovery of goods and chattels or deeds and writings, detained from him. This is seldom used; trover ls the more frequent remedy

This is either a writ of dower unde nihil habet, which lies for a widow, commanding the tenant to assign her dower, no part of which has yet been set off to her; or a writ of right

The writ in an action of ejectment, for the recovery of lands. See Ejectment.

A real action to recover the possession of land where the tenant (or owner) has been disseised or otherwise wrongfully dispossessed. If the disseisor has aliened the land or lf it

A writ which lay for the reversioner, when the possession was withheld by the lessee or a stranger, after the determination of a lease for years. Brown.

In English law. An abolished writ given by statute of Marlbridge, 52 Hen. III. c. 30, which provided that when the number of alienations or descents exceeded the usual degrees, a n

A writ issued from a court of appellate jurisdiction, directed to the judge or judges of a court of record, requiring them to remit to the appellate court the record of an action b

A writ to put in force the judgment or decree of a court.

A writ which appears to be still in use to bring appeals to the English high court from inferior courts not of record proceeding according to the course of the common law. Archb. P

A writ which lies for the recovery of an estate by a person claiming as issue in toil or by the remainder-man or reversioner after the termination of the entail. See Formedon.

This writ is also called a "writ of covenant," and is sued out by the party to whom lands are to be conveyed by fine, the foundation of whicb ls a supposed agreement or covenant th

In common-law practice. A writ which issues after the plaintiff in an action has obtained a judgment by default, on an unliquidated claim, directing the sheriff, with the aid of a

In English law. A writ directed to the sheriff, (either generally, when any man is imprisoned for a bailable offense and bail has bsen refused or specially, when the offense or cau

In old English law. A writ which was so called by reason of the words used in the writ, namely, "Unde idem A. qui medius est inter O. et prcefatum B.;" that is, A., who is mesne be

In English law. A writ which lies for the tenants of ancient demesne who hold by free charter, and not for those tenants who hold by copy of court roll, or by the rod, according to

This is the writ of execution employed to enforce a Judgment to recover the possession of land. It commands the sheriff to enter the land and give possession of It to the person en

This name is given to cortain write which may be issued in anticipation of suits which may arise, Co. Litt 100.

A process to enforce or maintain a privilege; particniarly to secure the release of a person arrested in a civil suit contrary to his privilege.