Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To prosecute or defend (a lawsuit or legal action); pursue (a legal case).
  • intransitive verb To bring a lawsuit or defend against a lawsuit in court.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To carry on a suit by judicial process.
  • To make the subject of a suit at law; bring before a court of law for decision; prosecute or defend at law, as a right or claim.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To carry on a suit by judicial process.
  • transitive verb To make the subject of a lawsuit; to contest in law; to prosecute or defend by pleadings, exhibition of evidence, and judicial debate in a court.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To go to law.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb engage in legal proceedings
  • verb institute legal proceedings against; file a suit against

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin lītigāre, lītigāt- : līs, līt-, lawsuit + agere, to drive; see ag- in Indo-European roots.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word litigate.

Examples

  • If the Republicans swagger in and try to "litigate" this on the public airwaves, President Obama will dismiss them out of hand.

    Obama to discuss Supreme Court pick with party leaders 2010

  • When underlings asked him to defend the company more forcefully against charges that it was largely to blame for the housing crisis, he told employees that he didn't want to "litigate" the past, two people familiar with the matter said.

    Freddie Chief Quits After Six Months 2009

  • Neither the Group nor Fiesta-Panama will "litigate" its legal proceedings in the press.

    StreetInsider.com News Articles 2009

  • Neither the Group nor Fiesta-Panama will "litigate" its legal proceedings in the press.

    unknown title 2009

  • Neither the Group nor Fiesta-Panama will "litigate" its legal proceedings in the press.

    unknown title 2009

  • Neither the Group nor Fiesta-Panama will "litigate" its legal proceedings in the press.

    StreetInsider.com News Articles 2009

  • Neither the Group nor Fiesta-Panama will "litigate" its legal proceedings in the press.

    unknown title 2009

  • As to the latter, Judge Berzon in her opinion said, “Here, however, Coalition has not proven except by assertion that the remaining detainees have no relationship with anyone who could appropriately serve to litigate the legality of the detention.”

    The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010

  • He might litigate there for years only to see the Court later in another case hold that such suits were barred by sovereign immunity.

    The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010

  • Lets just litigate and regulate until there is nothing left but lawyers, unions and government.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » AG Blumenthal’s Record 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.