Prosecutor

4 definitions found

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

  Prosecutor \Pros"e*cu`tor\, n. [Cf. L. prosecutor an attendant.]
     1. One who prosecutes or carries on any purpose, plan, or
        business.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Law) The person who institutes and carries on a criminal


        suit against another in the name of the government.
        --Blackstone.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prosecutor
       n : a government official who conducts criminal prosecutions on
           behalf of the state [syn: {public prosecutor}, {prosecuting
           officer}, {prosecuting attorney}]

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

  44 Moby Thesaurus words for "prosecutor":
     AG, DA, KC, QC, SSC, US attorney, accusant, accuser, allegator,
     appellant, attorney general, civilian, claimant, complainant,
     corporation lawyer, court-appointed lawyer, criminal lawyer,
     defense counsel, delator, district attorney, impeacher, impugner,
     indictor, informer, junior counsel, law agent, leader, libelant,
     mouthpiece, party, petitioner, plaintiff, private attorney,
     prosecuting attorney, public prosecutor, publicist, silk,
     silk gown, solicitor general, special pleader, stuff gown,
     stuff-gownsman, suitor, the prosecution
  
  

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

  PROSECUTOR, practice. He who prosecutes another for a crime in the name of 
  the government. 
       2. Prosecutors are public or private. The public prosecutor is an 
  officer appointed by the government, to prosecute all offences; he is the 
  attorney general or his deputy. 
       3. A private prosecutor is one who prefers an accusation against a 
  party whom be suspects to be guilty. Every man may become a prosecutor, but 
  no man is bound except in some few of the more enormous offences, as 
  treason, to be one but if the prosecutor should compound a felony, he will 
  be guilty of a crime. The prosecutor has an inducement to prosecute, because 
  he cannot, in many cases, have any civil remedy until he has done his duty 
  to society by an endeavor to bring the offender to justice. If a prosecutor 
  act from proper motives, me will not be responsible to the party in damages, 
  though he was mistaken in his suspicions; but if, from a motive of revenge, 
  he institute a criminal prosecution without any reasonable foundation, he 
  may be punished by being mulcted in damages in an action for a malicious 
  prosecution. 
       4. In Pennsylvania a defendant is not bound to plead to an indictment 
  where there is a private prosecutor, until his name shall have been indorsed 
  on the indictment as such, and on acquittal of the defendant, in all cases 
  except where the charge is for a felony, the jury may direct that he shall 
  pay the costs. Vide 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 1 to 10; 1 Phil. Ev. Index, h.t.; 2 
  Virg. Cas. 3, 20; 1 Dall. 5; 2 Bibb. 210; 6 Call. 245; 5 Rand. 669; and the 
  article Informer.