latitat

English

Etymology

Latin , meaning "he lies hidden", from latito.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlætɪtæt/

Noun

latitat (plural latitats)

1. (UK, law, historical) A writ based upon the presumption that the person summoned was hiding.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     This bill of Middlesex must be served on the defendant by the sheriff, if he finds him in that county; but , if he returns “non est inventus" then there issues out a writ of latitat to the sheriff of another county

2. (slang, obsolete) A lawyer.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “latitat”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Verb

latitat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of latitō