Search the Dictionary

assions; the act or power of refraining from indulgence of the sexual appetite, esp. from unlawful indulgence; sometimes, moderation in sexual indulgence. If they [the unmarried and widows] have not continency, let them marry. 1 Cor. vii. 9 (Rev. Ver. ). Chastity is either abstinence or continence: abstinence is that o…

To long for inordinately or unlawfully; to hanker after (something forbidden). Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Ex. xx. 17.

tituted to secure conviction and punishment for a crime. -- Criminal conversation (Law), unlawful intercourse with a married woman; adultery; -- usually abbreviated, crim. con. -- Criminal law, the law which relates to crimes.

; to misapply; to twist. [Archaic] There is no one thing that crooks youth more than such unlawfull games. Ascham. What soever affairs pass such a man's hands, he crooketh them to his own ends. Bacon.

To take unwares or by surprise; to seize, as a person commiting an unlawful act; to catch; to apprehend. The deprehended adulteress.Jer. Taylor.

A dress or exterior put on for purposes of concealment or of deception; as, persons doing unlawful acts in disguise are subject to heavy penalties. There is no passion steals into the heart more imperceptibly and covers itself under more disguises, than pride. Addison.

A person disseized, or put out of possession of an estate unlawfully; -- correlative to disseizor. [Written also disseisee.]

The act of disseizing; an unlawful dispossessing and ouster of a person actually seized of the freehold. [Written also disseisin.] Blackstone.

To appropriate unlawfully; to filch; to defalcate. He who drives their bargain dribs a part. Dryden.

The state of compulsion or necessity in which a person is influenced, whether by the unlawful restrain of his liberty or by actual or threatened physical violence, to incur a civil liability or to commit an offense.

The act of entering gradually or silently upon the rights or possessions of another; unlawful intrusion. An unconstitutional encroachment of military power on the civil establishment. Bancroft.

try (Law), a writ issued for the purpose of obtaining possession of land from one who has unlawfully entered and continues in possession. Bouvier.

The unlawful permission, by a jailer or other custodian, of a prisoner's departure from custody.

arrest and imprisonment of a person without warrant or cause, or contrary to law; or the unlawful detaining of a person in custody. -- False keel (Naut.), the timber below the main keel, used to serve both as a protection and to increase the shio's lateral resistance. -- False key, a picklock. -- False leg. (Zoöl.)…

To tell lies; to violate the truth. It is absolutely and universally unlawful to lie and falsify. South.

puts an end to his own existence, or loses his life while engaged in the commission of an unlawful or malicious act; a suicide. Burrill.

dicted. I kniw no spells, use no forbidden arts. Milton. Forbidden fruit. (a) Any coveted unlawful pleasure, -- so called with reference to the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden. (b) (Bot.) A small variety of shaddock (Citrus decumana). The name is given in different places to several varieties of Citrus fruits.…

In a forbidden or unlawful manner. Shak.

To commit fornication; to have unlawful sexual intercourse.

Unlawful sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person; the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as does not by law amount to adultery.