respondent

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Giving or given as an answer; responsive.
2. adj. Law Being a defendant.
3. n. One who responds.
4. n. Law A defendant, especially in a divorce or equity case.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Answering; responding.
2. Conformable; corresponding.
3. n. One who responds; specifically, in a scholastic disputation, one who maintains a thesis, and defends it against the objections of one or more opponents. There was no burden of proof upon the respondent at the outset, but, owing to the admissions which he was obliged by the rules of disputation to make, it was soon thrown upon him.
4. n. Specifically One who answers or is called on to answer a petition or an appeal.
5. n. In mathematics, a quantity in the body of a table: opposed to argument, or the regularly varying quantity with which the table is entered. Thus, in a table of powers, where the base is entered at the side, the exponent at the top, and the power is found in the body of the table, the last quantity is the respondent.
6. n. A defendant in a lawsuit, now specifically in a divorce case.

Wiktionary

1. n. law person who answers for the defendant in a case before a court. In some legal systems, when one appeals a criminal case, one names the original court as defendant, but the state is the respondent.
2. n. One who responds. See also correspondent.
3. n. Person that participates in research involving questionnaires.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Disposed or expected to respond; answering; according; corresponding.
2. n. (Law) One who answers in certain suits or proceedings, generally those which are not according to the course of the common law, as in equity and admiralty causes, in petitions for partition, and the like; -- distinquished from appellant.
3. n. One who maintains a thesis in reply, and whose province it is to refute objections, or overthrow arguments; -- distinguished from opponent.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. replying.
2. n. someone who responds
3. n. the codefendant (especially in a divorce proceeding) who is accused of adultery with the corespondent