Plaintiff

5 definitions found

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

  Plaintiff \Plain"tiff\, n. [F. plaintif making complaint,
     plaintive; in Old French equiv. to plaignant complainant,
     prosecutor, fr. plaindre. See {Plaint}, and cf. {Plaintive}.]
     (Law)
     One who commences a personal action or suit to obtain a
     remedy for an injury to his rights; -- opposed to


     {defendant}.
     [1913 Webster]

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

  Plaintiff \Plain"tiff\, a.
     See {Plaintive}. [Obs.] --Prior.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  plaintiff
       n : a person who brings an action in a court of law [syn: {complainant}]
           [ant: {defendant}]

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

  47 Moby Thesaurus words for "plaintiff":
     accessory, accusant, accuser, allegator, appellant, bitter-ender,
     brawler, claimant, complainant, defendant, delator, diehard,
     disputant, dissentient, dissident, impeacher, impugner, indictor,
     informer, intransigent, irreconcilable, last-ditcher, libelant,
     litigant, litigationist, litigator, naysayer, negativist,
     noncooperator, objector, obstructionist, obstructive, opposer,
     oppositionist, panel, parties litigant, party, petitioner,
     prosecutor, protester, quarreler, resister, scrapper, suitor,
     the prosecution, witness, wrangler
  
  

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

  PLAINTIFF, practice. He who, in a personal action, seeks a remedy for an 
  injury to his rights. Ham. on Parties, h.t.; 1 Chit. Pl. Index, h.t.; Chit. 
  Pr. Index, h.t.; 1 Com. Dig. 36, 205, 308. 
       2. Plaintiffs are legal or equitable. The legal plaintiff is he in whom 
  the legal title or cause of action is vested. The equitable plaintiff is he 
  who, not having the legal title, yet, is in equity entitled to the thing 
  sued for; for example, when a suit is brought by Benjamin Franklin for the 
  use of Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin is the legal, and Robert Morris the 
  equitable plaintiff. This is the usual manner of bringing suit, when the 
  cause of action is not assignable at law, but is so in equity. Vide Bouv. 
  Inst. Index, h.t.; Parties to Actions.