Scotch verdict
Americannoun
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a verdict of not proven: acceptable in certain cases in Scottish criminal law.
-
any inconclusive decision or declaration.
Etymology
Origin of Scotch verdict
First recorded in 1910–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As I recall it, they never proved that it did, or at best reached a Scotch verdict.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the prosecutor's exoneration of Donovan was something like the Scotch verdict of "not proven."
From Time Magazine Archive
If I correctly judge, the first of these hypotheses must be considered as of limited application if it is not seriously discredited, while the second can at best receive the Scotch verdict, not proven.
From Biology A lecture delivered at Columbia University in the series on Science, Philosophy and Art November 20, 1907 by Edmund Beecher Wilson
I'll give you a Scotch verdict, young man.
From Man Size by William MacLeod Raine
The evidence impressed me as insufficient and I silently found the Scotch verdict, "Not proven."
From The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce — Volume 2: In the Midst of Life: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians by Ambrose Bierce
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
