felony
(noun) a serious crime (such as murder or arson)
Source: WordNet® 3.1
felony (plural felonies)
(US, legal) A serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year or by death.
Source: Wiktionary
Fel"o*ny, n.; pl. Felonies. Etym: [OE. felonie cruelty, OF. felonie, F. félonie treachery, malice. See Felon, n.]
1. (Feudal Law)
Definition: An act on the part of the vassal which cost him his fee by forfeiture. Burrill.
2. (O.Eng.Law)
Definition: An offense which occasions a total forfeiture either lands or goods, or both, at the common law, and to which capital or other punishment may be added, according to the degree of guilt.
3. A heinous crime; especially, a crime punishable by death or imprisonment.
Note: Forfeiture for crime having been generally abolished in the United States, the term felony, in American law, has lost this point of distinction; and its meaning, where not fixed by statute, is somewhat vague and undefined; generally, however, it is used to denote an offense of a high grade, punishable either capitally or by a term of imprisonment. In Massachusetts, by statute, any crime punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison, and no other, is a felony; so in New York. the tendency now is to obliterate the distinction between felonies and misdemeanors; and this has been done partially in England, and completely in some of the States of the Union. The distinction is purely arbitrary, and its entire abolition is only a question of time.
Note: There is no lawyer who would undertake to tell what a felony is, otherwise than by enumerating the various kinds of offenses which are so called. originally, the word felony had a meaning: it denoted all offenses the penalty of which included forfeiture of goods; but subsequent acts of Parliament have declared various offenses to be felonies, without enjoining that penalty, and have taken away the penalty from others, which continue, nevertheless, to be called felonies, insomuch that the acts so called have now no property whatever in common, save that of being unlawful and purnishable. J. S. Mill.
To compound a felony
Definition: . See under Compound, v. t.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
23 December 2024
(noun) Australian tree having hard white timber and glossy green leaves with white flowers followed by one-seeded glossy blue fruit
Wordscapes is a popular word game consistently in the top charts of both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The Android version has more than 10 million installs. This guide will help you get more coins in less than two minutes of playing the game. Continue reading Wordscapes: Get More Coins