Act of indemnity

Indemnity \In*dem"ni*ty\, n.; pl. {Indemnities}. [L. indemnitas,
   fr. indemnis uninjured: cf. F. indemnit['e]. See
   {Indemnify}.]
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   1. Security; insurance; exemption from loss or damage, past
      or to come; immunity from penalty, or the punishment of
      past offenses; amnesty.
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            Having first obtained a promise of indemnity for the
            riot they had committed.              --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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   2. Indemnification, compensation, or remuneration for loss,
      damage, or injury sustained.
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            They were told to expect, upon the fall of Walpole,
            a large and lucrative indemnity for their pretended
            wrongs.                               --Ld. Mahon.
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   Note: Insurance is a contract of indemnity. --Arnould. The
         owner of private property taken for public use is
         entitled to compensation or indemnity. --Kent.
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   {Act of indemnity} (Law), an act or law passed in order to
      relieve persons, especially in an official station, from
      some penalty to which they are liable in consequence of
      acting illegally, or, in case of ministers, in consequence
      of exceeding the limits of their strict constitutional
      powers. These acts also sometimes provide compensation for
      losses or damage, either incurred in the service of the
      government, or resulting from some public measure.
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Act \Act\ ([a^]kt), n. [L. actus, fr. agere to drive, do: cf. F.
   acte. See {Agent}.]
   1. That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the
      effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a
      performance; a deed.
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            That best portion of a good man's life,
            His little, nameless, unremembered acts
            Of kindness and of love.              --Wordsworth.
      [1913 Webster] Hence, in specific uses:
      (a) The result of public deliberation; the decision or
          determination of a legislative body, council, court of
          justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve,
          award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress.
      (b) A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has
          been done. --Abbott.
      (c) A performance of part of a play; one of the principal
          divisions of a play or dramatic work in which a
          certain definite part of the action is completed.
      (d) A thesis maintained in public, in some English
          universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show
          the proficiency of a student.
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   2. A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a
      possibility or possible existence. [Obs.]
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            The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in
            possibility, what they afterward grow to be.
                                                  --Hooker.
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   3. Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on
      the point of (doing). "In act to shoot." --Dryden.
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            This woman was taken . . . in the very act. --John
                                                  viii. 4.
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   {Act of attainder}. (Law) See {Attainder}.

   {Act of bankruptcy} (Law), an act of a debtor which renders
      him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt.

   {Act of faith}. (Ch. Hist.) See {Auto-da-F['e]}.

   {Act of God} (Law), an inevitable accident; such
      extraordinary interruption of the usual course of events
      as is not to be looked for in advance, and against which
      ordinary prudence could not guard.

   {Act of grace}, an expression often used to designate an act
      declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at
      the beginning of a new reign.

   {Act of indemnity}, a statute passed for the protection of
      those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them
      to penalties. --Abbott.

   {Act in pais}, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the
      country), and not a matter of record.
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   Syn: See {Action}.
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