Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Negligence or undue delay in asserting a legal right or privilege.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Negligence; remissness; inexcusable delay; neglect to do a thing at the proper time.
- In law, remissness in asserting or enforcing a right, or neglect prejudicing some right of the person chargeable with it.
- n. A genus of spiders: same as Lachesis, a name preoccupied in herpetology.
Wiktionary
- n. law Legal doctrine that a person who waits too long to bring a claim alleging a wrong shall not be permitted to seek an equitable remedy because the delay prejudiced the moving party. Sleeping on one's rights.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Law) Neglect; negligence; remissness; neglect to do a thing at the proper time; especially, a delay in asserting a claim, sufficient to cause a person to lose the right to adjuducation of the claim by a court.
Etymologies
- From French lâches ("remissness, slackness"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, slackness, negligence, from Anglo-Norman lachesse, laches, from Old French laschesse, from lasche, loose, remiss; see lush1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And finally, the en banc Sixth Circuit rejected Secretary Brunner's arguments that the GOP had been guilty of "laches" - an equitable doctrine which basically says that if you've been tardy in asserting your rights, you may have forfeited them.”
“Though there’s a public interest in avoiding false advertising, that can’t swallow the rule that laches is available in Lanham Act cases.”
“Legally known as laches, things that are ignored on purpose.”
“This is a concept called "laches" in legalese; the team was established in 1967, the case brought in 1992, and it had dragged on until now, 2009, for 17 years.”
“I found an interesting take at the Election Law website which said the legal term 'laches' should apply to this case, so looked up that term:”
“By letting it continue to happen without litigation they are giving up their rights through equitable principles such as laches and perhaps even some statutes of limitations.”
“It is likewise the subject of one of the smaller tales in Lane's _Arabian Nights_; but here I must remark, that the Eastern version is decidedly more ingenious than the later ones, inasmuch as it exculpates the keeper of the deposit from the "laches" of which in the other cases she was decidedly guilty.”
“But most U.S. courts begin their "laches" analyses by looking to the most analogous statute of limitations, which probably just brings Russia back to civil RICO's four-year limit.”
“I think this because of any number of discussions I’ve had on this board and others about fetal development, legal concepts such as laches, and so on.”
“Perrigo argued that the public interest counseled against finding laches.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘laches’.
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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phrontistery - l
from phrontistery.info
labarum, labefactation, labeorphily, labidometer, labile, lability, labiomancy, labret, labrose, labtebricole, lac, laccolith and 496 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
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business terms
I'm studying business law, this list will contain words I would like to implement in my language and terminology.
commingling, novation, indemnification, prospectus, quorum, commingled, agent, trustee, honorariums, fiduciary, usurp, dissolution and 94 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
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Real Estate Law
The area I'm employed in - not as an attorney but a civil servant working as the clerk of a county assessment appeals board.
joint tenant, interspousal, abutting, fee simple, inter vivos trust, grantee, hold harmless, laches, leasehold estate, right of survivor..., life estate, mechanic's lien and 86 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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Legal Terms and Conditions
Strictly words or phrases I've encountered in law school and would not, more than likely, have known or cared about otherwise.
curtilage, defeasible, perpetuity, establishment, scienter, arguendo, de minimis, laches, actus reus, mens rea, stare decisis, quantum meruit and 9 more...
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Fun Legal Words
estoppel, champerty, animadvert, jactitation, assumpsit, de novo, tortfeasor, usufructuary, cestui que trust, misdemeanant, emolument, reasonableness and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for laches.
jaime_d from Middlemarch, of course, since it has to do with duty. Farebrother is the one suffering from laches. This is just a few paragraphs from the excellent sentence, "But Duty has a trick of behaving unexpectedly--something like a heavy friend whom we have amiably asked to visit us, and who breaks his leg within our gates." Sep 30, 2007