alienation of affections
alienation of affections noun: a common law tort that can be brought against the third party alleged to be responsible for the failure of marriage; abolished in many jurisdictions.
Noun
alienation of affections (uncountable)
- A common law tort that can be brought against the third party alleged to be responsible for the failure of marriage; abolished in many jurisdictions.
- The wrong in alienation of affections is foreseen damage to the relationship between husband and wife, which requires the marriage not to have been in ruins before the outsider interfered.2002, Eric Rasmusen, “5: An economic approach to adultery law”, in Antony W. Dnes, Bob Rowthorn, editors, The Law and Economics of Marriage and Divorce, page 83
- She brought suit against Margie under a seldom-used theory, the alienation of affections cause of action.
- In an alienation of affections claim, a plaintiff can recover from a third party who has deprived her of the affection of her spouse.2004, Robert F. Cochran, Robert M. Ackerman, Law and Community: The Case of Torts, page 79
Questions about alienation of affections
- What does alienation of affections mean?
- Alienation of affections means a common law tort that can be brought against the third party alleged to be responsible for the failure of marriage; abolished in many jurisdictions.
- What part of speech is alienation of affections?
- Alienation of affections is a noun.
Words near alienation of affections in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: alienation of affections (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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