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

DEFORCIARE. To withhold 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 abatement, an intrusion, a disseisin, or a discontinuance, as any other species of wrong whatsoever, 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, Scotch law. The opposition given, or resistance made, to messengers or other officers, while they are employed in executing the law.

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

DEFUNCT. 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.)

DEGRADATION, punishment, ecclesiastical law. A censure by which a clergy 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 conclusive. 1 Phil. Ev. 269; R. & M. 383.

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

2. Figuratively applied, and as it is understood in law, it is the distance between those who are allied by blood; it means the relations descending 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.) Par degrez, by degree, the descent being reckoned par degrez. Minshew. Each generation lengthens 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 Consanguinity;, 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.