Definition of Deodand

1. n. A personal chattel which had caused the death of a person, and for that reason was given to God, that is, forfeited to the crown, to be applied to pious uses, and distributed in alms by the high almoner. Thus, if a cart ran over a man and killed him, it was forfeited as a deodand.

Definition of Deodand

1. Noun. (obsolete legal) An object forfeited by the state (and supposedly given to God) because it had caused the death of a person ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Deodand

1. property forfeited to the crown under a former English law [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Deodand

denunciations
denunciative
denunciator
denunciators
denunciatory
denutrition
deny
denying
denyingly
deobstruct
deobstructed
deobstructing
deobstructs
deobstruent
deobstruents
deodand (current term)
deodands
deodar
deodar cedar
deodar cedars
deodara
deodaras
deodars
deodate
deodates
deodorant
deodorants
deodorisation
deodorisations
deodorise

Literary usage of Deodand

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone, William Carey Jones (1915)
"In English men called the deodand, the bane, that is. the slayer. In accordance with ancient ideas this bane, we take it, would have gone to the kinsmen of ..."

2. The Justice of the Peace, and Parish Officer: With the Practice of Country by John Frederick Archbold (1846)
"Id. If a man fall from a ship at sea, and be drowned, the ship is no deodand; but if the ship be moving in fresh water, it is forfeited, but not the loading ..."

3. The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1909)
"Where a man killeth another with the sword of John at Stile, the sword shall be forfeit as deodand, and yet no default is in the owner. ..."

4. The New American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana (1859)
"He has been employed upon the churches of St. Germain deodand (tat. Deo dandum, a thing to be given to God). A superstitious practice prevailed in England ..."

5. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of Queen's Bench, and by Great Britain Court of King's Bench, Great Britain Court of Exchequer Chamber, Henry Davison (1841)
"The jurors then assessed a deodand of ISO/, on each of the said engines, and concluded " that they do perfectly exonerate the men employed on the said two ..."

6. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of King's Bench by Great Britain Court of King's Bench, John Leycester Adolphus (1841)
"With regard to the second point: supposing the inquisition erroneous as to the deodand, yet, if it be not wrong throughout, it cannot be quashed. ..."

7. Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society by Essex Archaeological Society (1906)
"A deodand IN THE HUNDRED OF ONGAR. ' BY WILLIAM CHAPMAN WALLER, FSA SOME years ago, when Mr. Gerald Buxton acquired the manor of Theydon ..."

8. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts of Common Law by Great Britain Bail Court (1872)
"The deodand may be taken. Blackstone, in the passage *cited, clearly considered that a deodand could be taken though the rg^ death was by felony; ..."

Other Resources:

Search for Deodand on Dictionary.com!Search for Deodand on Thesaurus.com!Search for Deodand on Google!Search for Deodand on Wikipedia!

Search