Adjacent Words

Perjury definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PER'JURY, n. [L. perjurium.] The act or crime of willfully making a false oath, when lawfully administered; or a crime committed when a lawful oath is administered in some judicial proceeding, to a person who swears willfully, absolutely and falsely in a matter material to the issue.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: criminal offense of making false statements under oath [syn: perjury, bearing false witness, lying under oath]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century the voluntary violation of an oath or vow either by swearing to what is untrue or by omission to do what has been promised under oath ; false swearing

Britannica Concise

In law, act or crime of knowingly making a false statement while under oath. The statement must be material to the issue of inquiry. Perjuries that have the effect of obstructing the adjudication of a case may be given increased punishment for that reason. A person who makes a false statement and later corrects it is usually not considered to have committed perjury.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) Law 1 a breach of an oath, esp. the act of wilfully telling an untruth when on oath. 2 the practice of this. Derivatives: perjurious adj. Etymology: ME f. AF perjurie f. OF parjurie f. L perjurium (as PERJURE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Perjury Per"ju*ry, n.; pl. Perjuries. [L. perjurium. See Perjure, v.] 1. False swearing. 2. (Law) At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations. Note: If a man swear falsely in nonjudicial affidavits, it is made perjury by statute in some jurisdictions in the United States.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If someone who is giving evidence in a court of law commits perjury, they lie. (LEGAL) This witness has committed perjury and no reliance can be placed on her evidence.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pur'-ju-ri.

See CRIMES; OATH; PUNISHMENTS.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. False swearing.

Moby Thesaurus

artfulness, coloring, confabulation, craftiness, credibility gap, deceitfulness, disingenuousness, distortion, equivocation, exaggeration, false coloring, false swearing, falseheartedness, falsification, falsifying, forswearing, fraud, insincerity, intrigue, lying, mendaciousness, mendacity, miscoloring, misconstruction, misrepresentation, misstatement, perversion, prevarication, sharp practice, straining, uncandidness, uncandor, unfrankness, unsincereness, untruthfulness