McNaughton rules
McNaughton rules noun: a test of criminal insanity by which "it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong".
Noun
McNaughton rules pl (plural only)
- A test of criminal insanity by which "it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong".
Forms of McNaughton rules
| alternative form | M'Naghten rule |
|---|
Origin of McNaughton rules
1843, from the trial of Daniel McNaughton, who shot and murdered Edward Drummond, the Private Secretary to the then British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.
Questions about McNaughton rules
- What does McNaughton rules mean?
- McNaughton rules means a test of criminal insanity by which "it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong".
- What part of speech is McNaughton rules?
- McNaughton rules is a noun.
Words near McNaughton rules in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: McNaughton rules (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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