trover

Noun

trover (countable and uncountable, plural trovers)

1. Taking possession of personal property which has been found.
   • How did he like it when the live creatures
     Tickled and toused and browsed him all over,
     And worm, slug, eft, with serious features
     Came in, each one, for his right of trover?1844, Robert Browning, "Garden Fancies," II. Sibrandus Schafnaburgennis
2. A legal action brought to recover such property by its original owner.
   • The pocket-book was a late present from Mrs Western […]. A prudent person […] would not have offered more than a shilling, or perhaps sixpence, for it; nay, some perhaps would have given nothing, and left the fellow to his action of trover, which some learned serjeants may doubt whether he could...1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 431
   • By a fiction of law, actions of trover are now permittedto be brought against any person who hath got into his possession by any means whatsoever the goods of another, and sold them or used them without the consent of the owner, or refused to deliver them when demanded.1792, Richard Burns, John Burns, “Trover”, in A New Law Dictionary, volume II