Defn: A body of felons; specifically, the convict population of a penal colony. Howitt.
FELONWORT
Fel"on*wort`, n. (Bot.)
Defn: The bittersweet nightshade (Solanum Dulcamara). See
Bittersweet.
FELONY
Fel"o*ny, n.; pl. Felonies. Etym: [OE. felonie cruelty, OF. felonie,
F. félonie treachery, malice. See Felon, n.]
1. (Feudal Law)
Defn: An act on the part of the vassal which cost him his fee by forfeiture. Burrill.
2. (O.Eng.Law)
Defn: 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.
Note: 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.