Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The act or practice of bringing a groundless lawsuit or lawsuits.
- noun An unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's owner.
- noun Sale or purchase of positions in church or state.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The purchase or sale of ecclesiastical preferments or of offices of state. See
barrator , 1, 3. - noun In old Scots law, the taking of bribes by a judge.
- noun The fraud or offense committed by a barrator. See
barrator , 4. - noun A vexatious and persistent inciting of others to lawsuits and litigation; a stirring up and maintaining of controversies and litigation. This is a criminal offense at common law.
- noun Also
barretry , especially in the last sense.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Law) The practice of exciting and encouraging lawsuits and quarrels.
- noun (Mar. Law) A fraudulent breach of duty or willful act of known illegality on the part of a master of a ship, in his character of master, or of the mariners, to the injury of the owner of the ship or cargo, and without his consent. It includes every breach of trust committed with dishonest purpose, as by running away with the ship, sinking or deserting her, etc., or by embezzling the cargo.
- noun (Scots Law) The crime of a judge who is influenced by bribery in pronouncing judgment.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the
act ofpersistently instigating lawsuits , oftengroundless ones - noun the
sale and/orpurchase ofpolitical positions ofpower - noun
unlawful orfraudulent acts by thecrew of avessel , harming the vessel's owner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun traffic in ecclesiastical offices or preferments
- noun (maritime law) a fraudulent breach of duty by the master of a ship that injures the owner of the ship or its cargo; includes every breach of trust such as stealing or sinking or deserting the ship or embezzling the cargo
- noun the crime of a judge whose judgment is influenced by bribery
- noun the offense of vexatiously persisting in inciting lawsuits and quarrels
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In criminal and civil law, barratry is the act or practice of bringing repeated legal actions solely to harass.
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In another oration of Demosthenes we discover glimpses of what by many has been deemed maritime insurance, or rather of the fraud at present called barratry, which is practised to defraud the insurer: but, as Park in his learned Treatise on Marine Insurance has satisfactorily proved, the ancients were certainly ignorant of maritime insurance; though there can be no doubt frauds similar to those practised at present were practised.
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It is not the same as barratry, which is active encouragement of lawsuits.
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It is not the same as barratry, which is active encouragement of lawsuits.
Define That Term #21 2006
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Texas law prohibits anyone from soliciting clients for lawyers - a third-degree felony known as barratry, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Brownsville Herald : 2010
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(The judge passed over the complaint about "barratry" in silence.)
Ars Technica Nate Anderson 2010
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In his court response, he accused Righthaven of "barratry," defined as
Ars Technica Nate Anderson 2010
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Based on past experience, I believe that this earns him an indulgence from the Online Left on anything up to barratry (naval definition).
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The police are on the way to charge you with attempted swinicide, assault and battery, kidnapping, grievous bodily harm and barratry.
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The police are on the way to charge you with attempted swinicide, assault and battery, kidnapping, grievous bodily harm and barratry.
The Stainless Steel Rat Returns – Chapter 3 « Official Harry Harrison News Blog 2009
chained_bear commented on the word barratry
"The idea was so feasible, in fact, that had the court known of a friendship between Briggs and the Dei Gratia's captain the entire episode might have been ruled an insurance scheme, or barratry—fraud against the owners—at the very least. Morehouse and possibly even Winchester would have gone to jail.... He knew what it looked like. It smacks of insurance fraud even today but, upon examination, that too is unlikely."
—Brian Hicks, Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew (NY: Ballantine Books, 2004), 151
September 18, 2009
knitandpurl commented on the word barratry
"Are you quite sure, Mrs. Wellaby, that you haven't committed even the least little tiny tort in the last few days? Because I am ready, now as ever, to defend you against any accusation whatsoever, no matter whether it be barratry or illicit diamond-buying, forgery or coining, breach of promise to marry, or armed resistance to capture."
The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, p 199 of the New York Review of Books hardcover
July 17, 2013
qms commented on the word barratry
The time-honored laws of admiralty
Define what is honest and fair at sea.
The fo'csle's a moral farrago
But keep order in the cargo
Or owners may charge you with barratry.
August 23, 2014