Definitions

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

  • noun An action to recover personal property said or claimed to be unlawfully taken.
  • noun The writ or procedure of such an action.
  • transitive verb To replevy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To replevy.
  • noun In law, a personal action which lies to recover possession of goods or chattels wrongfully taken or detained, upon giving security to try the right to them in a suit at law, and, if that should be determined against the plaintiff, to return the property replevied.
  • noun The writ by which goods and chattels are replevied.
  • noun Bail.

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

  • noun (Law) A personal action which lies to recover possession of goods and chattle wrongfully taken or detained. Originally, it was a remedy peculiar to cases for wrongful distress, but it may generally now be brought in all cases of wrongful taking or detention.
  • noun The writ by which goods and chattels are replevied.
  • transitive verb (Law) To replevy.

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

  • noun law an action to recover personal property unlawfully taken; the writ or procedure of such action
  • verb transitive to replevy

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman replevine, from replevir, to give as a security : re-, re- + plevir, to pledge (from Late Latin plebere, of Germanic origin; see dlegh- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Anglo-Norman, from Old French replevir ‘recover’, from re- + plevir (apparently from a Germanic word which was also the source of English pledge).

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