Definitions

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

  • noun The act of presenting to view or to the mind.
  • noun An indictment.
  • noun The report of a grand jury concerning an alleged offense, used as a basis for an indictment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of presenting, or the state of being presented; presentation.
  • noun Anything presented or exhibited; appearance; likeness; representation.
  • noun In law: A statement by a grand jury of an offense from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them: as, the presentment of a nuisance, a libel, or the like, on which the prosecuting officer must afterward frame an indictment, before the party presented can be put to answer it. In a more general sense, presentment comprehends inquisitions of office and indictments.
  • noun The formal information to the lord, by the tenants of a manor, of anything done out of court.
  • noun The presenting of a bill of exchange to the drawee for acceptance, or of a bill to the acceptor, or of a note to the maker, for payment.
  • noun Eccles., a formal complaint made by the authorities of a parish to the bishop or archdeacon at his visitation.

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

  • noun The act of presenting, or the state of being presented; presentation.
  • noun Setting forth to view; delineation; appearance; representation; exhibition.
  • noun The notice taken by a grand jury of any offence from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them, ; also, an inquisition of office and indictment by a grand jury; an official accusation presented to a tribunal by the grand jury in an indictment, or the act of offering an indictment; also, the indictment itself.
  • noun The official notice (formerly required to be given in court) of the surrender of a copyhold estate.
  • noun the offering of a bill to the drawee for acceptance, or to the acceptor for payment. See Bill of exchange, under Bill.

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

  • noun a document that must be accepted and paid by another person
  • noun a show or display; the act of presenting something to sight or view
  • noun an accusation of crime made by a grand jury on its own initiative

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman presentment, presentement, Middle French presentement, corresponding to present +‎ -ment.

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Examples

  • This whole “rule with changes” = “bill”, for the constitutional requirement of bicameralism and presentment is unprecedented and dangerous.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Is the Slaughter Solution constitutional? 2010

  • H. R.6061, The Secure Fence Act of 2006, was delayed in presentment, but cleared Congress and was presented.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Is the Slaughter Solution constitutional? 2010

  • The point of bicameralism and presentment is that all three actors (House, Senate and President) must agree to the legislation, warts and all, so that all three can be held politically accountable for it.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Balkin on the “Slaughter Solution” 2010

  • The illustrations are super-excellent in some cases; compared with United States publications, where wealth and population should give much greater effects, the Canadian presentment is a triumph.

    Canadian Journalism 1906

  • It happens, however, to be the only one in which the habits and customs of this particular species have been minutely portrayed, and it only needs to be opened in order to see how absolutely remote the presentment is from anything that could by any possibility have existed in reality.

    Maria Edgeworth 1905

  • Here then it is time to recall the presentment of ancient, recent and contemporary evolution already outlined in the part of this paper previously read (Vol. I, p. 109), dealing with the historic survey of cities.

    Civics: as Applied Sociology Patrick Geddes 1893

  • [40] The presentment, which is the other parent of our criminal procedure, had an origin distinct from the appeal.

    The Common Law Oliver Wendell Holmes 1888

  • A presentment was a presentation, on their own motion, of an accusation against one or more persons.

    The American Judiciary Simeon E. Baldwin 1883

  • The white beard, with "each particular hair" defined, falling almost to the pale, lean hands, is an essential part of the presentment, which is full of such scrupulous detail as the eye would unconsciously take note of in confronting the man himself and afterward supply in the remembrance of the whole.

    Roman Holidays, and Others William Dean Howells 1878

  • A presentment is a notice taken by a grand jury of any offence or crime of which they may have knowledge.

    Civil Government of Virginia William Fayette Fox 1872

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