judgment

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

• noun The act or process of judging; the formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation.
• noun An opinion or estimate formed after consideration or deliberation, especially a formal or authoritative decision.
• noun The mental ability to perceive and distinguish relationships; discernment.
• noun The capacity to form an opinion by distinguishing and evaluating.
• noun The capacity to assess situations or circumstances and draw sound conclusions; good sense: synonym: reason.
• noun A determination of a court of law; a judicial decision.
• noun A court decision establishing that an obligation is owed, such as a debt.
• noun A misfortune believed to be sent by God as punishment for sin.
• noun The Last Judgment.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The faculty of judging.
• noun Specifically— The intellectual power of perceiving relations between ideas, as the relations of similarity, difference, etc.
• noun The act of judging. The act of affirming (or denying) a relation (as of similarity or difference) between two ideas.
• noun The process of arriving at a conclusion or decision; the determination of a doubtful or debatable matter.
• noun The product of the mental act of judging; the recognition of a relation between objects; a mental affirmation or proposition; the thought that a given general representation is really applicable to a certain object; the actual consciousness of belief.
• noun The decision of a judge, or of one acting as a judge; an authoritative determination; specifically, the judicial decision of a cause in court; adjudication; award; sentence.
• noun Specifically— the determination of the rights of the parties in a common-law action, as distinguished from a decree in chancery
• noun the determination of the rights of the parties in any action, legal or equitable, under the reformed procedure
• noun the document embodying such determination. When those rights have been conceded, or established by evidence, and it only remains to compel compliance with the judgment, the judgment is called final. If before enforcing the judgment it is necessary to take proceedings to determine the application of those rights—as, for instance, to take an accounting, or to turn lands or chattels into money for the purpose of division—the determination of the rights of the parties first had is an interlocutory judgment or decree; and after such further proceedings have been had the court gives a final judgment or decree, which can be immediately enforced.
• noun An opinion formed or put forth; a conclusion drawn from premises; a decision based on observation or belief; an estimate; a view.
• noun A divine allotment or dispensation; a decree or commandment of God; specifically, an event or experience regarded as a direct manifestation of the divine will, especially of the divine displeasure.
• noun The final trial of the human race in the future state; the judgment-day.
• noun See the adjectives.
• noun Hence— In modern practice, the documents (usually the process complaint, answer, verdict or findings and judgment thereon) fastened and folded together, and filed as the record of the judgment.
• noun Synonyms Judgment, Sagacity, Perspicacity; discrimination, penetration, wisdom, brains. Judgment, as compared with sagacity and perspicacity, is a general word: as, sound judgment in business; good judgment as to cloths. Sagacity is a power to discern the real facts of a situation, to see the course that is wisest to avoid failure or achieve success. (See astute.) Sagacity is especially the word applied to brutes that have a large discernment and a quickness of mind like those of man. Perspicacity is essentially the same as discernment, except that it is more vividly figurative, suggesting the actual use of the eyes in looking into things. See discernment. Verdict, Report, etc. See decision and inference.- Taste, Judgment (see taste); opinion, belief, conclusion.

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

• noun The act of judging; the operation of the mind, involving comparison and discrimination, by which a knowledge of the values and relations of things, whether of moral qualities, intellectual concepts, logical propositions, or material facts, is obtained
• noun The power or faculty of performing such operations (see 1); esp., when unqualified, the faculty of judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely; good sense
• noun The conclusion or result of judging; an opinion; a decision.
• noun The act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice; also, the determination, decision, or sentence of a court, or of a judge; the mandate or sentence of God as the judge of all.
• noun That act of the mind by which two notions or ideas which are apprehended as distinct are compared for the purpose of ascertaining their agreement or disagreement. See 1. The comparison may be threefold: (1) Of individual objects forming a concept. (2) Of concepts giving what is technically called a judgment. (3) Of two judgments giving an inference. Judgments have been further classed as analytic, synthetic, and identical.
• noun That power or faculty by which knowledge dependent upon comparison and discrimination is acquired. See 2.
• noun A calamity regarded as sent by God, by way of recompense for wrong committed; a providential punishment.
• noun (Theol.) The final award; the last sentence.
• noun (Theol.) the last day, or period when final judgment will be pronounced on the subjects of God's moral government.
• noun (Law) a debt secured to the creditor by a judge's order.
• noun a hall where courts are held.
• noun the seat or bench on which judges sit in court; hence, a court; a tribunal.
• noun (Law) a proceeding by a judgment creditor against a judgment debtor upon an unsatisfied judgment.
• noun (Law) See under Arrest, n.
• noun a term formerly applied to extraordinary trials of secret crimes, as by arms and single combat, by ordeal, etc.; it being imagined that God would work miracles to vindicate innocence. See under Ordeal.

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

• noun The act of judging.
• noun The power or faculty of performing such operations; especially, when unqualified, the faculty of judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely; as, a man of judgment; a politician without judgment.
• noun The conclusion or result of judging; an opinion; a decision.
• noun law The act of determining, as in courts of law, what is conformable to law and justice; also, the determination, decision, or sentence of a court, or of a judge.
• noun theology The final award; the last sentence.

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

• noun the cognitive process of reaching a decision or drawing conclusions
• noun the legal document stating the reasons for a judicial decision