DE FORCIANT. One who wrongfully keeps the owner of lands and tenements¹ out of the possession of them. 2 Bl. Com. 350.

DEFORCIARE. To withhold² lands or tenements from the right owner. This is a word of art which cannot be supplied by any other word. Co. Litt. 331 b; 3 Tho. Co. Litt. 3; Bract. lib. 4, 238; Fleta, lib. c.

DEFORCEMENT, tort. In its most extensive sense it signifies the holding of any lands or tenements to which another person has a right; Co . Litt. 277; so that this includes, as well, an abatement³, an intrusion, a disseisin, or a discontinuance, as any other species of wrong whatsoever⁴, by which the owner of the freehold is kept out of possession. But, as contradistinguished from the former, it is only such a detainer, of the freehold, from him who has the right of property, as falls within none of the injuries above mentioned. 3 Bl. Com. 173; Archb. Civ. Pl. 13; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.

DEFORCEMENT, Scotch⁵ law. The opposition⁶ given, or resistance made, to messengers or other officers, while they are employed in executing the law.

2. This crime is punished by confiscation⁷ of movables, the one half to the king, and the other to the creditor⁸ at whose suit the diligence is used. Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. 4,4,32.

DEFUNCT⁹. A term used for one that is deceased or dead. In some acts of assembly in Pennsylvania, such deceased person is called a decedent. (q. v.)

DEGRADATION¹⁰, punishment, ecclesiastical law. A censure¹¹ by which a clergy¹² man is deprived of his holy orders, which he had as a priest or deacon.

TO DEGRADE, DEGRADING. To, sink or lower a person in the estimation of the public.

2. As a man's character is of great importance to him, and it is his interest to retain the good opinion of all mankind, when he is a witness, he cannot be compelled to disclose any matter which would tend to disgrace or degrade him, 13 How. St. Tr. 17, 334, 16 How. St. Tr. 161. A question having that tendency, however, may be asked, and, in such case, when the witness chooses to answer it, the answer is conclusive¹³. 1 Phil. Ev. 269; R. & M. 383.

DEGREE, descents. This word is derived¹⁴ from the French degre, which is itself taken from the Latin gradus, and signifies literally¹⁵, a step in a stairway, or the round of a ladder.

2. Figuratively applied¹⁶, and as it is understood in law, it is the distance between those who are allied¹⁷ by blood; it means the relations descending¹⁸ from a common ancestor, from generation to generation, as by so many steps. Hence, according to some Lexicographers, we obtain the word, pedigree (q. v.) Par¹⁹ degrez, by degree, the descent being reckoned par degrez. Minshew. Each generation lengthens²⁰ the line of descent one degree, for the degrees are only the generations marked in a line by small circles or squares, in which the names of the persons forming it are written. Vide Consanguinity²¹;, Line; and also Ayliffe's Parergon, 209; Toull. Dr. Civ. Frau. liv. 3, t. 1, c. 3, n. 158; Aso & Man. Inst. B. 2, t. 4, c. 3, §1.