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inclination to mischief; an intention to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or to do a wrongful act without just cause or cause or excuse; a wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others; willfulness. Malice aforethought or prepense, malice previously and deliberately entertained.

With wicked or mischievous intentions or motives; wrongful and done intentionally without just cause or excuse; as, a malicious act. Malicious abandonment, the desertion of a wife or husband without just cause. Burrill. -- Malicious mischief (Law), malicious injury to the property of another; -- an offense at common l…

stone. Burrill. -- Mesne profits, profits of premises during the time the owner has been wrongfully kept out of the possession of his estate. Burrill.

Wrong appropriation; wrongful use.

To covet wrongfully. [Obs.]

To treat wrongfully. [Obs.] Grafton.

To get wrongfully. [Obs.]

To carry away or mislead wrongfully, as by passion. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

rty in one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy; ownership, whether rightful or wrongful.

Wrongful encroachment upon another's property; esp., any encroachment upon, or inclosure of, that which should be common or public, as highways, rivers, harbors, forts, etc. [Written also pourpresture.]

attels, wife, or children, without force or violence, from one who has taken them and who wrongfully detains them. Blackstone. Writ of recaption (Law), a writ to recover damages for him whose goods, being distrained for rent or service, are distrained again for the same cause.Wharton.

tore. A governor, that had pillaged the people, was . . . sentenced to refund what he had wrongfully taken. L'Estrange.

A personal action which lies to recover possession of goods and chattle wrongfully taken or detained. Originally, it was a remedy peculiar to cases for wrongful distress, but it may generally now be brought in all cases of wrongful taking or detention. Bouvier.

To take or get back, by a writ for that purpose (goods and chattels wrongfuly taken or detained), upon giving security to try the right to them in a suit at law, and, if that should be determined against the plaintiff, to return the property replevied.

take and carry away, feloniously; to take without right or leave, and with intent to keep wrongfully; as, to steal the personal goods of another. Maugre thy heed, thou must for indigence Or steal, or borrow, thy dispense. Chaucer. The man who stole a goose and gave away the giblets in G. Eliot.

rious. For this thankworthy, if a man, for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 1 Pet. ii. 19.

Any civil wrong or injury; a wrongful act (not involving a breach of contract) for which an action will lie; a form of action, in some parts of the United States, for a wrong or injury. Executor de son tort. See under Executor. -- Tort feasor (Law), a wrongdoer; a trespasser. Wharton.

Injurious; wrongful. [Obs.] "Tortious power." Spenser.

em to the owner on demand; an action which lies in any case to recover the value of goods wrongfully converted by another to his own use. In this case the finding, though alleged, is an immaterial fact; the injury lies in the conversion.

to forms; an undue rigor in the execution of law. Undue influence (Law), any improper or wrongful constraint, machination, or urgency of persuasion, by which one's will is overcome and he is induced to do or forbear an act which he would not do, or would do, if left to act freely. Abbott.