ATTAINDER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Attainder

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noun

Attainder n.

The act of attainting, or the state of being attainted; the extinction of the civil rights and capacities of a person, consequent upon sentence of death or outlawry; as, an act of attainder. Note: Formerly attainder was the inseparable consequence of a judicial or legislative sentence for treason or felony, and involved the forfeiture of all the real and personal property of the condemned person, and such "corruption of blood" that he could neither receive nor transmit by inheritance, nor could he sue or testify in any court, or claim any legal protection or rights. In England attainders are now abolished, and in the United States the Constitution provides that no bill of attainder shall be passed; and no attainder of treason (in consequence of a judicial sentence) shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.

A stain or staining; state of being in dishonor or condemnation. (Obs.) "He lived from all attainder of suspect."

Bill of attainder, a bill brought into, or passed by, a legislative body, condemning a person to death or outlawry, and attainder, without judicial sentence.

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Etymology of 'Attainder'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Attainder" Quotes from Famous Books

... parliaments bind not. So the statute 11 Hen. VII. c. 1. which directs, that no person for assisting a king de facto shall be attainted of treason by act of parliament or otherwise, is held to be good only as to common prosecutions for high treason; but will not restrain or clog any parliamentary attainder[o]. Because the legislature, being in truth the sovereign power, is always of equal, always of absolute authority: it acknowleges no superior upon earth, which the prior legislature must have been, if it's ordinances could bind the present parliament. And upon the same principle Cicero, ...

— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... eminence, still retaining the name of Pict's hill, while the one we have just described preserves the appellation of Denne (undoubtedly derived from Dane) hill. The estate formerly belonging to the family of Braose, was forfeited to the crown, with other lands, on the attainder of Thomas duke of Norfolk into whose possession it had fallen: in the year 1594, it was awarded by Sir William Covert and Sir John Caryll to James Boath, by whom it was sold five years afterwards to Stephen Barnham of London for 1250l. Shortly ...

— The History and Antiquities of Horsham • Howard Dudley

... parsonage-house for the parish of St. Clement Danes, with a garden and close for the parson's horse, till Sir Thomas Palmer, knight, in the reign of Edward VI., came into the possession of the living, and began to build a house; but upon his attainder for high treason, in the first year of Queen Mary, it reverted to the crown. This house remained in the crown till Queen Elizabeth granted it to Sir William Cecil, lord treasurer, who augmented and rebuilt it, when it was called Cecil House, and Burleigh House. It was said to have been a noble pile, ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 13, No. 354, Saturday, January 31, 1829. • Various

Words linked to "Attainder" : cancellation, civil death, bill of attainder