barrator

American  

[bar-uh-ter] / ˈbær ə tər /

Also barrater,

noun

Law.

1. a person who commits barratry.

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ˈbarrator British  

/ ˈbærətə /

noun

1. a person guilty of barratry

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Etymology

Origin of barrator

1350–1400; Middle English barettour brawler, fighter < Anglo-French barretor, barator, Old French barateor, equivalent to barat ( er ) to make a disturbance, baret ( er ) to trick, cheat (< Vulgar Latin *prattāre < Greek prā́ttein to do, perform, manage; practical ) + -eor -ator

Example Sentences

I should soon be considered, not the friend of abstract "truth and justice," but a party barrator, unworthy the confidence and respect of my fellow citizens.

From Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries Volumes I. and II., Complete by Hogan, William

Barratry, Common, in law, the stirring up of lawsuits and quarrels between other persons, the party guilty of this offence being indictable as a common barrator or barretor.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

And, when the barrator had disappeared, he turned his talons on his fellow, and was clutched with him above the ditch.

From Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" A Course of Lectures Delivered Before the Student Body of the New York State College for Teachers, Albany, 1919, 1920 by Slattery, John T. (John Theodore)

Money he took, and let them smoothly off, so he says; and in other offices besides he was no little barrator, but sovereign.

From Divine Comedy, Norton's Translation, Hell by Norton, Charles Eliot

And when the barrator had disappeared,   He turned his talons upon his companion,   And grappled with him right above the moat.

From Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Complete by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth