Word.ws English Dictionary

deodand

deodand noun: an object forfeited to the state (and supposedly to God) because it had caused the death of a person.

Noun

deodand (plural deodands)

  1. (historical) An object forfeited to the state (and supposedly to God) because it had caused the death of a person.
    • Really, it’s hard not to wonder whether some current civil forfeiture practices represent much less than a revival of the archaic common-law deodand.2024 May 9, Neil Gorsuch, “CULLEY ET AL. v. MARSHALL, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ALABAMA, ET AL.”, in Opinions, Supreme Court of the United States
  2. (historical) A fine equal to the value of this object, paid by the owner of the object.
    • pay the deodand

Forms of deodand

pluraldeodands

Origin of deodand

From Anglo-Norman deodande, from Latin deodandum, from Deo dandum (“to be given to God”).

Questions about deodand

What does deodand mean?
Deodand means an object forfeited to the state (and supposedly to God) because it had caused the death of a person.
What part of speech is deodand?
Deodand is a noun.
What is the plural of deodand?
The plural of deodand is deodands.

Words near deodand in the dictionary

  1. deoccupying
  2. deoculate
  3. deoculated
  4. deoculates
  5. deoculating
  6. deodand
  7. deodands
  8. deodar
  9. deodar cedar
  10. deodar cedars
  11. deodara

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deodand (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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Cite this entry: “deodand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deodand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.