Felony

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Felony \Fel"o*ny\, n.; pl. {Felonies}. [OE. felonie cruelty, OF.
     felonie, F. f['e]lonie treachery, malice. See {Felon}, n.]
     1. (Feudal Law) An act on the part of the vassal which cost
        him his fee by forfeiture. --Burrill.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. (O.Eng.Law) An offense which occasions a total forfeiture
        either lands or goods, or both, at the common law, and to
        which capital or other punishment may be added, according
        to the degree of guilt.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A heinous crime; especially, a crime punishable by death
        or imprisonment.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Forfeiture for crime having been generally abolished in
           the United States, the term felony, in American law,
           has lost this point of distinction; and its meaning,
           where not fixed by statute, is somewhat vague and
           undefined; generally, however, it is used to denote an
           offense of a high grade, punishable either capitally or
           by a term of imprisonment. In Massachusetts, by
           statute, any crime punishable by death or imprisonment
           in the state prison, and no other, is a felony; so in
           New York. the tendency now is to obliterate the
           distinction between felonies and misdemeanors; and this
           has been done partially in England, and completely in
           some of the States of the Union. The distinction is
           purely arbitrary, and its entire abolition is only a
           question of time.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: There is no lawyer who would undertake to tell what a
           felony is, otherwise than by enumerating the various
           kinds of offenses which are so called. originally, the
           word felony had a meaning: it denoted all offenses the
           penalty of which included forfeiture of goods; but
           subsequent acts of Parliament have declared various
           offenses to be felonies, without enjoining that
           penalty, and have taken away the penalty from others,
           which continue, nevertheless, to be called felonies,
           insomuch that the acts so called have now no property
           whatever in common, save that of being unlawful and
           purnishable. --J. S. Mill.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {To compound a felony}. See under {Compound}, v. t.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  felony
       n : a serious crime (such as murder or arson)

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  52 Moby Thesaurus words for "felony":
     atrocity, breach, crime, crime against humanity, deadly sin,
     delict, delinquency, dereliction, enormity, error, evil, failure,
     fault, genocide, guilty act, heavy sin, illegality, impropriety,
     indiscretion, inexpiable sin, iniquity, injury, injustice, lapse,
     malefaction, malfeasance, malum, minor wrong, misdeed, misdemeanor,
     misfeasance, mortal sin, nonfeasance, offense, omission, outrage,
     peccadillo, peccancy, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission,
     sinful act, slip, tort, transgression, trespass, trip,
     unutterable sin, venial sin, violation, wrong, wrongdoing
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  FELONY, crimes. An offence which occasions a total forfeiture of. either 
  lands or goods, or both, at common law, to which capital or other punishment 
  may be super-added, according to the degree of guilt. 4 Bl. Com, 94, 5; 1 
  Russ. Cr. *42; 1 Chit. Pract. 14; Co. Litt. 391; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 37; 5 
  Wheat. R. 153, 159.