Forms: 3–7 trespas, (4–5 trispas, trispase), 4–6 trespace, 4–7 trespasse, (5 truspas, trespaas, 6 tresspas, treaspas), 7– trespass. β. 4 trepas, -pase, pl. -pasis. [ME. trespas, a. OF. trespas passing across, passage, transgression of an order or law, offence, vbl. sb. fr. trespasser, mod.F. trépasser to pass away, die: see TRESPASS v. The legal application of the words seems specially English.]
1. A transgression; a breach of law or duty; an offence, sin, wrong; a fault.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 23/152. He [St. Dunstan] … for-ȝaf hem [his servants] heore trespas … And a-soylede hem of heore sunnes.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 171. Þei did a foule trespas, it was vnsemly þing.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. vi. 14. Ȝif ȝee shulen forȝeue to men her synnys, and ȝoure heuenly fadir shal forȝeue to ȝou ȝoure trespassis.
a. 1425. Cursor M., 822 (Trin.). Furst shulde he bie dere þat trespace [rhyme grace].
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 502. In þat mene while … it [a soul] mot hafe done suche penance for þe truspas at it had done, at it mot hafe bene delyverd fro payn.
1526. Tindale, Matt. vi. 12 [see TRESPASS v. 3 b]. Ibid., 14. And [= if] ye wyll not forgeve men there trespases, no more shall youre father forgeve your treaspases.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 265. Be plainer with me, let me know my Trespas.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., II. 179. I lookt upon it as a Trespass against human prudence, to run the hazard a second time of being hindered to go into the Indies.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. xii. 208. Trespass, in it’s largest and most extensive sense, signifies any transgression or offence against the law of nature, of society, or of the country in which we live.
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., v. My head … is at your imperial command, prompt to pay for the unbecoming trespass of my tongue.
2. Law. In a wide sense, Any violation or transgression of the law; spec. one not amounting to treason, felony, or misprision of either.
c. 1290. Beket, 462, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 119. It nas neuere lawe ne riȝt, double dom to take For o trespas.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 50. Edrik was hanged on þe toure, for his trispas.
1421. Coventry Leet Bk., 24. Noo Osteler bake no maner of bred in hur houses, nodur mannys bred ne horsebred, to sell, up the payne of vj s. viij d. at every trespas.
1428. Surtees Misc. (1888), 5. His trespas of forgeyng and utteryng of fals osmunds and castyng of fals tyn.
1472–5. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 157/1. Trespasses doon with force and armes ayenst your peas.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 49. Sometimes a man is accused of felonye, and yet he proueth his offence to be but a trespace.
1651. G. W., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 211. The word Trespasse … comprehends every violation of the Law. But our discreet Lawyers call only private crimes Trespasses, and make distinctions even amongst these.
1895. Pollock & Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, II. viii. § 3. II. 510. Trespass (transgressio) is the most general term that there is; it will cover all or almost all wrongful acts and defaults. Every felony, says Bracton, is a trespass, though every trespass is not a felony. In a narrower sense therefore trespass is used [in 13th c.] as a contrast to felony.
β. c. 1308. in Pol. Songs (Camden), 197. Of feloni hi ne taketh hede, Al thilk trepas is a-go.
3. Law. spec. Any actionable wrong committed against the person or property of another; also short for action of trespass. a. Trespass to person.
13[?]. Cursor M., 29391 (Cott. Galba). Of him þat dose a light trispase To prest or clerk vnwitandly.
1444. Coventry Leet-Bk., 203. In satisfaccion of the trespas doon to hym the tyme þat he was beeton.
1767. Comyns, Digest, V. 534. Trespass to the Person may be by Menace, Assault, Battery or Mayhem.
1822. Hammond, Comyns’ Digest, VII. 495. A throws a squib among the people at a market, it lights near B who throws it from him, C does the same, and it strikes D and puts out his eye: D has trespass vi et armis against A.
1876. Pollock, Leading Cases done into Eng., 17. And now ’gainst Shepherd, for loss of eye, Question is, whether trespass will lie.
b. Trespass to goods.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, 183. If the testator make diuerse executors, and do bequeath to the one of them the residue of his goodes;… if the other executor enter thereunto, hee is subiect to an action of trespasse.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 257. He may bring an action of trespass for taking away his goods.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., II. ix. 523. Another remedy for the unlawful taking of goods is by action of trespass, to recover damages for the loss of goods.
1909. Holdsworth, Hist. Eng. Law, III. 27. The place of appeal was taken by the semi-criminal action of trespass de bonis asportatis.
1913. Laws Eng. (ed. Halsbury), XXVII. 865. The gist of an action of trespass is an unlawful taking or removing or damaging of a personal chattel.
c. Trespass to land. A wrongful entry upon the lands of another, with damage (however inconsiderable) to his real property.
c. 1455. Forest Lawis, c. 21, in Acts Parl. Scot. (1844), I. 692. Of trespas in forest of Baron.
[1472–3. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 43/2. Noo persone nor persones, which have taken any … profittes of any of the premisses, or have entred and doon trespas.]
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. xii. 209. In the limited and confined sense … it signifies no more than an entry on another man’s ground without a lawful authority, and doing some damage, however inconsiderable, to his real property…. Every unwarrantable entry on another’s soil the law entitles a trespass by breaking his close.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 319. If a person grants a piece of ground in the middle of his estate; he at the same time impliedly grants a way to it, and the grantee may pass over the land of the grantor … without being guilty of a trespass.
d. Trespass on the case, a form of action now obsolete in which the damage complained of is a result not immediate, but consequential of an unlawful act. So called from the L. name of the writs (brevia de transgressione super casum) under which it was brought; also the name of the writ itself.
1429. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 346/1. Speciall actions of dette or trespasse uppon her cas.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 257. If not that it bee a trespasse upon the case, and then the words Vi et armis are left out, and in lieu thereof the writ shal say in the end thereof, Contra pacem.
1768. [see CASE sb.1 6 e].
1875. Poste, Gaius, III. Comm. (ed. 2), 473. What was done by the introduction of the action of Trespass on the Case, was exactly analogous to what the praetors did.
1888. F. Pollock, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 454. In the 16th century, a special form or ‘trespass on the case’ became, under the name of assumpsit, the common and normal method of enforcing contracts not made by deed, and remained so till the middle of the present century.
4. A passing beyond some limit. Now generally associated with TRESPASS v. 4. rare.
16[?]. Jolly Pinder of Wakefield, ii. in Child, Ballads (1888), III. 131. There is neither knight or squire … Dare make a trespasse to the town of Wakefield.
1681. trans. Belon’s Myst. Physick, 46. Some small Trespasses beyond the Rules of Physick.
1798. Charlotte Smith, Yng. Philos., I. 49. He was frequently involved in scrapes for harmless frolics and trespasses out of bounds.
5. An encroachment, intrusion on or upon: cf. TRESPASS v. 5.
1769. Goldsm., Hist. Rome (1786), II. 23. Mankind are ever most offended at any trespass on ceremony.
1799. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 287. I know the extent of this trespass on your tranquillity.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 575. Would not a publication of this kind be a species of trespass on the board of health, lately instituted in Ireland?
1830. Gladstone, in Morley, Life (1903), I. App. 639. One trespass more I must make on your patience.
6. attrib. and Comb., as trespass act, -board (BOARD sb. 2 b), -fine, money, -offering (cf. SIN-OFFERING); trespass-chiding adj.
1906. F. S. Oliver, A. Hamilton, II. iii. 121. By this victory he smashed the *Trespass Act.
1908. Nation, 21 Nov., 299/1. These writers have a disregard of all *trespass-boards.
1847. Tennyson, Princ., V. 36. Boys that slink From ferule and the *trespass-chiding eye.
1611. Bible, 2 Kings xii. 16. The *trespasse money, and sinne money was not brought into the house of the Lord.
1535. Coverdale, Lev. v. 15. Yf a soule trespace … he shal brynge his *trespaceofferinge vnto the Lorde.
1845. Kitto, Cycl. Bibl. Lit., s.v. Adultery, Bringing a trespass offering (a ram) to the door of the tabernacle, to be offered in his behalf by the priest.
