Definitions

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

  • noun The crime of willfully and knowingly making a false statement about a material fact while under oath.
  • noun An act of committing such a crime.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The violation of any oath, vow, or solemn affirmation; specifically, in law, the wilful utterance of false testimony under oath or affirmation, before a competent tribunal, upon a point material to a legal inquiry.
  • noun Synonyms See perjure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun False swearing.
  • noun (Law) At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun law The deliberate giving of false or misleading testimony under oath.

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

  • noun criminal offense of making false statements under oath

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English periurie, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin periūrium, from periūrāre, to perjure; see perjure.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ultimately from Latin perjurare ("swear falsely"), from Latin per- +‎ jurare.

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