Also libelant. [f. LIBEL v. + -ANT; after appellant, defendant, etc.]
1. Law. One who institutes a suit in an ecclesiastical or admiralty court. Also as adj.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 352. The party Libellant seems to confess whatever is contain’d within the compass and Words of his Libel. Ibid. If the Libellant propounds any thing in his Libel which makes against himself, he must abide by it.
1804–17. W. Cranch, Rep. (Webster, 1828), The counsel for the libelant contended [etc.].
1874. Deady, in Law Times Rep., XXXI. 201/1. The libellants shipped on the Hermine … as ordinary seamen.
1890. Law Times, LXXXIX. 164/1. Successful libellants in a collision suit.
2. One who publishes a libel; a libeller.
In some recent Dicts.
