- The act of discontinuing, or the state of being
discontinued; want of continued connection or continuity; breaking off;
cessation; interruption; as, a discontinuance of conversation or
intercourse; discontinuance of a highway or of travel. - A breaking off or interruption of an estate, which
happened when an alienation was made by a tenant in tail, or other
tenant, seized in right of another, of a larger estate than the tenant
was entitled to, whereby the party ousted or injured was driven to his
real action, and could not enter. This effect of such alienation is now
obviated by statute in both England and the United States. - The termination of an action in practice by the
voluntary act of the plaintiff; an entry on the record that the
plaintiff discontinues his action. - That technical interruption of the proceedings in
pleading in an action, which follows where a defendant does not answer
the whole of the plaintiff's declaration, and the plaintiff omits to
take judgment for the part unanswered.
Definition
[ n.]