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Of or relating to a prince; regal; royal; of highest rank or authority; as, princely birth, character, fortune, etc.

or exemption from an evil or burden; a prerogative; advantage; franchise. He pleads the legal privilege of a Roman. Kettlewell. The privilege birthright was a double portion. Locke. A people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties. Burke.

sed without the consent of the party making it, -- such as those made by a client to his legal adviser, or by persons to their religious or medical advisers. (b) A communication which does not expose the party making it to indictment for libel, -- such as those made by persons communicating confidentially with a govern…

ottom; to scrutinize or examine thoroughly. Dryden. The growing disposition to probe the legality of all acts, of the crown. Hallam.

A step taken; an act performed; a proceeding; the steps taken in an action or other legal proceeding. "Gracious procedures." I. Taylor.

To begin and carry on a legal process.

ing to another; a measure or step taken in a course of business; a transaction; as, an illegal proceeding; a cautious or a violent proceeding. The proceedings of the high commission. Macaulay.

That to which a person has a legal title, whether in his possession or not; thing owned; an estate, whether in lands, goods, or money; as, a man of large property, or small property.

One who has the legal right or exclusive title to anything, whether in possession or not; an owner; as, the proprietor of farm or of a mill.

To seek to obtain by legal process; as, to prosecute a right or a claim in a court of law.

f a criminal suit; the process of exhibiting formal charges against an offender before a legal tribunal, and pursuing them to final judgment on behalf of the state or government, as by indictment or information.

arty, before or while paying a tax, duty, or the like, demanded of him, which he deems illegal, denying the justice of the demand, and asserting his rights and claims, in order to show that the payment was not voluntary. Story. Kent.

To free from ceremonial or legal defilement. And Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, . . . and purified the altar. Lev. viii. 15. Purify both yourselves and your captives. Num. xxxi. 19.

Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid; -- often used by way of reproach or contempt. Paritanical circles, from which plays and novels were strictly excluded. Macaulay. He had all the puritanic traits, both good and evil. Hawthorne.

Imperial; regal; -- so called from the color having been an emblem of imperial authority. Hide in the dust thy purple pride. Shelley.

cessary for a purpose; to make capable, as of an employment or privilege; to supply with legal power or capacity. He had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession. Macaulay.

One legally empowered to make quest of certain matters, esp. of abuses of weights and measures. Specifically:

their wearers, tossed, And fluttered into rags. Milton. Not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty. Fuller.

Royal; regal; kingly. [Obs.] "The blood real of Thebes." Chaucer.

manent nature of real property; as, chattels which savor of the realty; -- so written in legal language for reality.