Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Used as a name in legal proceedings to designate an unknown man or boy or to protect the identity of a known man or boy, especially where there is another such individual in the case designated as John Doe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an unknown or fictitious party to legal proceedings

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The first person has transferred the property to the second person, who thereby holds the property for the benefit of the third person. defines a class of structures which take the form of labelled 4-tuples, as for example (writing the label on the left): the first person = Alfonso Arblaster; the property = the derelict land behind Alfonso's house; the second person = John Doe; the third person = Richard Roe.

    Model Theory Hodges, Wilfrid 2009

  • The term came to be applied to business entities as a shorter version of, for example, "Richard Roe & Company" i.e., Richard Roe and a bunch of other guys who are his partners.

    Capitalism: You Look Marvelous, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • In ejectment, as was mentioned in the Prologue, plaintiff had to assert an imaginary lease, with shadow men, often with names like John Doe or Richard Roe, in the picture.

    A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

  • In ejectment, as was mentioned in the Prologue, plaintiff had to assert an imaginary lease, with shadow men, often with names like John Doe or Richard Roe, in the picture.

    A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

  • In ejectment, as was mentioned in the Prologue, plaintiff had to assert an imaginary lease, with shadow men, often with names like John Doe or Richard Roe, in the picture.

    A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985

  • To skirt complicated legal procedures, these suits would be brought by a fictitious Mr. Doe against an equally nonexistent Richard Roe.

    ASK TIP SHEET 2007

  • We know that it became standard by the time of Blackstone to use the name of John Doe for the fictitious plaintiff and Richard Roe for the equally unreal defendant in such cases actions of ejectment.

    languagehat.com: JOHN DOE'S COUSINS. 2004

  • I will have a ‘John Doe and Richard Roe’ — a fine action of ejectment.

    Erema Richard Doddridge 2004

  • Chief Justice Frederic Pendarvis leaned his elbows on the bench and considered the three black-coated lawyers before him in the ac'tion of John Doe, Richard Roe, et alii, An Unincorporated Voluntary Association, versus The Colonial Government of Zarathustra.

    The Fuzzy Papers Piper, H. Beam 1962

  • And it was pretty well established that those four had been the John Doe, Richard Roe, et alfl, who had been represented in court by Ingermann just after the Pendarvis Decisions.

    The Fuzzy Papers Piper, H. Beam 1962

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