attorney

English Online Dictionary. What means attorney‎? What does attorney mean?

English

Alternative forms

• actorney (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English attourne, from Old French atorné, past participle of atorner, atourner, aturner (“to attorn”), in the sense of "one appointed or constituted".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/
• (Philippines, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ʔɐˈtoɹ.ni/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ni

Noun

attorney (plural attorneys or (obsolete) attornies)

1. (US) A lawyer; one who advises or represents others in legal matters as a profession.

   Synonyms: lawyer, barrister, solicitor, counsel, counselor, advocate (all sometimes with narrower distinctions)

   Hypernym: person

   Hyponyms: defense attorney, defender, public defender; prosecuting attorney, prosecutor
2. (law) An agent or representative authorized to act on someone else's behalf in accordance with that person's instructions.

   Near-synonyms: agent, proxy, representative

3. (UK, dated, 19th century and earlier) One such who practised in the courts of the common law.

   Coordinate terms: proctor, solicitor

4. (UK, 20th century and later, rare, usually derogatory) A solicitor.
5. (Philippines, sometimes US) An honorific given to lawyers and notaries public, or those holders by profession who also do other jobs. Usually capitalized or abbreviated as Atty.
6. Clusia spp.
7. A prosecutor.

Usage notes

• In the "agent" sense, the word is now used to refer to nonlawyers usually only in fixed phrases such as attorney-in-fact or power of attorney.

Quotations

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Punjabi: ਅਟਾਰਨੀ (aṭārnī)
• → Welsh: atwrnai

Translations

See also

Verb

attorney (third-person singular simple present attorneys, present participle attorneying, simple past and past participle attorneyed)

1. (intransitive, rare) To work as a legal attorney.
2. (transitive, rare) To provide with a legal attorney.

References

• “attorney”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

French

Pronunciation

Noun

attorney m (plural attorneys)

1. attorney

Further reading

• “attorney”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.