INQUEST • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Inquest

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/ˈɪnkwˌɛst/ Listen

noun

Inquest n.

Inquiry; quest; search. (R.) "The laborious and vexatious inquest that the soul must make after science."

(Law)

(a)

Judicial inquiry; official examination, esp. before a jury; as, a coroner's inquest in case of a sudden death.

(b)

A body of men assembled under authority of law to inquire into any matter, civil or criminal, particularly any case of violent or sudden death; a jury, particularly a coroner's jury. The grand jury is sometimes called the grand inquest. See under Grand.

(c)

The finding of the jury upon such inquiry.

Coroner's inquest, an inquest held by a coroner to determine the cause of any violent, sudden, or mysterious death. See Coroner.

Inquest of office, an inquiry made, by authority or direction of proper officer, into matters affecting the rights and interests of the crown or of the state.

See images of 'Inquest'

Etymology of 'Inquest'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inquest" Quotes from Famous Books

... the colonel preferred to sleep alone. He secured lodgings in the town, and making an excuse to the captain returned to his room early. He had purchased all the newspapers he could find and he wanted to study them quietly. It was with unusual relish that he read the account of an inquest on himself. There was no breath of suspicion that he was ...

— Jack O' Judgment • Edgar Wallace

... been an inquest; certain tramps and wanderers had been arrested, examined and dismissed. No discovery had been made, and a verdict of Wilful "Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown" had been returned. It was generally felt that Carfax's life ...

— The Prelude to Adventure • Hugh Walpole

... given. But this, again, was found insufficient. At the end, it was found that the number of priests who had destroyed the purity of their penitents was so great that it was impossible to punish them all. The inquest was given up, and the guilty confessors remained unpunished. Several attempts of the same nature have been tried by other popes, but ...

— The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional • Father Chiniquy

... refutation. Such shame would settle upon every page of Pope's satires and moral epistles, oftentimes upon every couplet, if any censor, armed with an adequate knowledge of the facts, were to prosecute the inquest. And the general impression from such an inquest would be, that Pope never delineated a character, nor uttered a sentiment, nor breathed an aspiration, which he would not willingly have recast, have retracted, have ...

— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson

... way to know was to examine the bottle, and Glenarvan set to work without further delay, so carefully and minutely, that he might have been taken for a coroner making an inquest. ...

— In Search of the Castaways • Jules Verne

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