Word
abettal
Phoneticsabet·tal
Definition
n. the act of helping someone to commit a crime. It is an old word that you will rarely see in modern books.
n. the act of aiding or encouraging another person to commit a crime. Archaic in modern legal contexts; often replaced by 'abettor' or 'aiding and abetting'.
Examples
“The court found evidence of abettal in the case.”
“Historical legal texts often describe the abettal of a crime as a separate offense from the crime itself.”
“While the primary defendant was responsible for the physical act, the abettal of the conspiracy was sufficient to secure a conviction for the secondary party.”
Examples
simple
“The court found evidence of abettal in the case.”
contextual
“Historical legal texts often describe the abettal of a crime as a separate offense from the crime itself.”
complex
“While the primary defendant was responsible for the physical act, the abettal of the conspiracy was sufficient to secure a conviction for the secondary party.”
Etymology
From abet + -al.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/abettal