replevin
Americannoun
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an action for the recovery of goods or chattels wrongfully taken or detained.
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the common-law action or writ by which goods are replevied.
verb (used with object)
noun
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the recovery of goods unlawfully taken, made subject to establishing the validity of the recovery in a legal action and returning the goods if the decision is adverse
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(formerly) a writ of replevin
verb
Other Word Forms
- unreplevined adjective
Etymology
Origin of replevin
1300–50; Middle English < Anglo-French, derivative of replevir to bail out, admit to bail, Old French. See re-, pledge
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.
The Argonauts promised to produce this contract, adding that if Engineer Sikorsky continued unconvinced they would pay him a balance due of $8,000, attach the plane through a writ of replevin, drop Capt.
From Time Magazine Archive
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One firm, Merchant & Co., which had supplied the iron for his kiln and vault, had gone so far as to secure a writ of replevin to take the iron back.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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Where is the great writ of personal replevin, which our fathers wrested, several hundred years ago, from the tyrants who once lorded it over Great Britain?
From The Trial of Theodore Parker For the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping, before the Circuit Court of the United States, at Boston, April 3, 1855, with the Defence by Parker, Theodore
You haven't a piece of property here," said the judge, going on with the matters uppermost in his mind, "that you could successfully maintain replevin for, if anybody converted it.
From Double Trouble Or, Every Hero His Own Villain by Lowell, Orson
Should he get out a search warrant or a writ of replevin?
From The Wit and Humor of America, Volume V. (of X.) by Wilder, Marshall Pinckney
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.