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ecision; -- applied esp. to law applied or established by the judicial interpretation of statutes so as extend or restrict their scope, as to meet new cases, to provide new or better remedies, etc., and often used opprobriously of acts of judicial interpretation considered as doing this.

ce just distance 'tween our armies. Shak. He was a comely personage, a little above just stature. Bacon. Fire fitted with just materials casts a constant heat. Jer. Taylor. When all The war shall stand ranged in its just array. Addison. Their named alone would make a just volume. Burton.

See Legislatature, below.

A kind of spear anciently used. Its use was prohibited by a statute of Richard II. Nares. In his hand a launcegay, A long sword by his side. Chaucer.

A small European bird of the Plover family (Vanellus cristatus, or V. vanellus). It has long and broad wings, and is noted for its rapid, irregular fight, upwards, downwards, and in circles. Its back is coppery or greenish bronze. Its eggs are the "plover's eggs" of the London market, esteemed a delicacy. It is called…

tolen. They are abolished in England. -- Mixed, or Compound, larceny, that which, under statute, includes in it the aggravation of a taking from a building or the person. -- Simple larceny, that which is not accompanied with any aggravating circumstances.

a dead language for the people. -- Law Latin, that kind of late, or low, Latin, used in statutes and legal instruments; -- often barbarous.

Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or recognized, and enforced, by the controlling authority.

sure of length or distance, varying in different countries from about 2.4 to 4.6 English statute miles of 5.280 feet each, and used (as a land measure) chiefly on the continent of Europe, and in the Spanish parts of America. The marine league of England and the United States is equal to three marine, or geographical, m…

ate person before the law, by legal means; as, to legitimate a bastard child. To enact a statute of that which he dares not seem to approve, even to legitimate vice. Milton.

A certain period limited by statute after which the claimant shall not enforce his claims by suit.

He sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. Luke xix. 3.

Not rising to the usual height; as, a man of low stature; a low fence.

L.] (Law), offenses which are such from their own nature, at common law, irrespective of statute. -- Mala prohibita Etym: [L.] (Law), offenses prohibited by statute, as distinguished from mala in se, which are offenses at common law.

The May apple (Podophyllum peltatum). See May apple under May, and Podophyllum. [U.S.]

he slender branches. -- May apple (Bot.), the fruit of an American plant (Podophyllum peltatum). Also, the plant itself (popularly called mandrake), which has two lobed leaves, and bears a single egg-shaped fruit at the forking. The root and leaves, used in medicine, are powerfully drastic. -- May beetle, May bug (Zo…

le position; middle; being about midway between extremes. Being of middle age and a mean stature. Sir. P. Sidney.

A celebrated Egyptian statue near Thebes, said to have the property of emitting a harplike sound at sunrise.

resence of water; to crumble away. The moldering of earth in frosts and sun. Bacon. When statues molder, and when arches fall. Prior. If he had sat still, the enemy's army would have moldered to nothing. Clarendon.

ra, but now ascertained to be sexually different forms of the same genus (Catasetum tridentatum, etc.).