Fel"o*ny (?), n.; pl.
Felonies (#). [OE. felonie cruelty, OF.
felonie, F. félonie treachery, malice. See
Felon, n.] 1. (Feudal
Law) An act on the part of the vassal which cost him his fee
by forfeiture. Burrill.
2. (O. Eng. Law) An offense which
occasions a total forfeiture either lands or goods, or both, at the
common law, and to which capital or other punishment may be added,
according to the degree of guilt.
3. A heinous crime; especially, a crime
punishable by death or imprisonment.
&fist; Forfeiture for crime having been generally abolished in the
United States, the term felony, in American law, has lost this
point of distinction; and its meaning, where not fixed by statute, is
somewhat vague and undefined; generally, however, it is used to
denote an offense of a high grade, punishable either capitally or by
a term of imprisonment. In Massachusetts, by statute, any crime
punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison, and no
other, is a felony; so in New York. the tendency now is to
obliterate the distinction between felonies and misdemeanors; and
this has been done partially in England, and completely in some of
the States of the Union. The distinction is purely arbitrary, and its
entire abolition is only a question of time.
&fist; There is no lawyer who would undertake to tell what a
felony is, otherwise than by enumerating the various kinds of
offenses which are so called. originally, the word felony had
a meaning: it denoted all offenses the penalty of which included
forfeiture of goods; but subsequent acts of Parliament have declared
various offenses to be felonies, without enjoining that penalty, and
have taken away the penalty from others, which continue,
nevertheless, to be called felonies, insomuch that the acts so
called have now no property whatever in common, save that of being
unlawful and purnishable. J. S. Mill.
To compound a felony. See under Compound,
v. t.
