Duplicity

4 definitions found

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

  duplicity \du*plic"i*ty\, n.; pl. {duplicities}. [F.
     duplicit['e], L. duplicitas, fr. duplex double. See
     {Duplex}.]
     1. Doubleness; a twofold state. [Archaic]
        [1913 Webster]
  


              Do not affect duplicities nor triplicities, nor any
              certain number of parts in your division of things.
                                                    --I. Watts.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Doubleness of heart or speech; insincerity; a sustained
        form of deception which consists in entertaining or
        pretending to entertain one set of feelings, and acting as
        if influenced by another; bad faith.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he
              acted his part with alacrity and resolution.
                                                    --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law)
        (a) The use of two or more distinct allegations or
            answers, where one is sufficient. --Blackstone.
        (b) In indictments, the union of two incompatible
            offenses. --Wharton.
  
     Syn: Double dealing; dissimulation; deceit; guile; deception;
          falsehood.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  duplicity
       n 1: a fraudulent or duplicitous representation [syn: {fraudulence}]
       2: acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain
          one set of intentions while acting under the influence of
          another [syn: {double-dealing}]

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

  60 Moby Thesaurus words for "duplicity":
     Janus, Machiavellianism, ambidexterity, ambiguity, ambivalence,
     artfulness, artifice, bad faith, biformity, bifurcation,
     conjugation, craft, cunning, deceit, deceitfulness, dichotomy,
     dirty pool, dirty trick, dirty work, dishonesty, dissemblance,
     dissimulation, double-dealing, doubleness, doubleness of heart,
     doublethink, doubling, dualism, duality, duplexity, duplication,
     equivocality, faithlessness, falseheartedness, falseness,
     foul play, furtiveness, guile, halving, hypocrisy, improbity,
     indirection, insidiousness, irony, low cunning, pairing,
     perfidiousness, perfidy, polarity, shiftiness, sneak attack,
     sneakiness, surreptitiousness, treacherousness, treachery,
     twinning, two-facedness, twoness, underhandedness, wile
  
  

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

  DUPLICITY, pleading. Duplicity of pleading consists in multiplicity of 
  distinct matter to one and the same thing, whereunto several answers are 
  required. Duplicity may occur in one and the same pleading. Double pleading 
  consists in alleging, for one single purpose or object, two or more distinct 
  grounds of defence, when one of them would be as effectual in law, as both 
  or all. 
       2. This the common law does not allow, because it produces useless 
  prolixity, and always tends to confusion, and to the multiplication of 
  issues. Co. Litt. 304, a; Finch's Law, 393.; 3 Bl. Com. 311; Bac. Ab. Pleas, 
  K 1. 
       3. Duplicity may be in the declaration, or the subsequent proceedings: 
  Duplicity in the declaration consists in joining, in one and the same count, 
  different grounds of action, of different natures, Cro. Car. 20; or of the 
  same nature, 2 Co. 4 a; 1 Saund. 58, n. 1; 2 Ventr. 198; Steph. Pl. 266; to 
  enforce only a single right of recovery. 
       4. This is a fault in pleading, only because it tends to useless 
  prolixity and confusion, and is, therefore, only a fault in form. The rule 
  forbidding double pleading "extends," according to Lord Coke, "to pleas 
  perpetual or peremptory, and not to pleas dilatory; for in their time and 
  place a man may use divers of them." Co. Litt. 304, a. But by this is not 
  meant that any dilatory plea way be double, or, in other words, that it way 
  consist of different matters, or answers to one and the same thing; but 
  merely that, as there are several kinds or classes of dilatory pleas, having 
  distinct offices or effects, a defendant may use "divers of them" 
  successively, (each being in itself single,) in their proper order. Steph. 
  Pl. App. note 56. 
       5. The inconveniences which were felt in consequence of this strictness 
  were remedied by the statute, 4 Ann. c. 16, s. 4, which provides, that " it 
  shall be lawful for any defendant, or tenant, in any action or suit, or for 
  any plaintiff in replevin, in any court of record, with leave of the court 
  to plead as many several matters thereto as he shall think necessary for his 
  defence." 
       6. This provision, or a similar one, is in force, probably, in most of 
  the states of the American Union. 
       7. Under this statute, the defendant may, with leave of court, plead as 
  many different pleas in bar, (each being a single,) as he may think proper; 
  but although this statute allows the defendant to plead several distinct and 
  substantive matters of defence, in several distinct pleas, to the whole, or 
  one and the same part of the plaintiff's demand; yet, it does not authorize 
  him to allege more than one, ground of defence in one plea. Each plea must 
  still be single, as by the rules of the common law. Lawes, Pl. 131; 1 Chit. 
  Pl. 512. 
       8. This statute extends only to pleas to the declaration, and does not 
  embrace replications, rejoinders, nor any of the subsequent pleadings. 
  Lawes, Pl. 132; 2 chit. Pl. 421; Com. Dig. Pleader, E 2; Story's Pl. 72, 76; 
  5 Am. Jur. 260-288. Vide) generally, 1 Chit. Pl. 230, 512; Steph. Pl. c. 2, 
  s. 3, rule 1; Gould on Pl. c. 8, p. 1; Archb. Civ. Pl. 191; Doct. Pl. 222; 5 
  John. 240; 8 Vin. Ab. 183; U. S. Dig. Pleading, II. e and f.