What does barrat mean?
Barrat is an archaic legal term denoting the offence of habitually stirring up quarrels and inciting other people to engage in lawsuits or legal proceedings, usually out of malice or for personal advantage. Under medieval and early modern English common law, a person who made a practice of such mischief — known as a common barrator — could be punished by fine, imprisonment, or other penalties, since the courts regarded the habitual manufacture of disputes as a public nuisance that wasted judicial resources. The word belongs firmly to legal history: it appears in old statutes, treatises, and court records rather than in ordinary conversation, and the offence has long ceased to be actively prosecuted in most jurisdictions. Related forms include barrator, the person who commits the offence, and barratry, the practice itself, which survives separately in maritime law as a term for fraudulent misconduct by a ship's master against the owner's interests. For readers of historical legal documents, knowing barrat clarifies a once-serious charge that now seems a curious relic of a more litigious age.
nounThe offence of habitually stirring up quarrels and inciting others to bring lawsuits or legal proceedings, typically for personal gain or spite. It is a largely historical crime in English common law.
- The offence of frequently exciting quarrels or instigating litigation between others, formerly punishable under English common law.
"In medieval England, a common barrat could be fined or even pilloried for fomenting disputes among his neighbours."
"The court charged him with barrat for repeatedly provoking his neighbours into filing suits against one another."
"Old legal treatises describe barrat as a nuisance that clogged the courts with frivolous actions."
Rarely used in the plural, as the term normally refers to the offence as a concept rather than countable instances.
"The chronicle records several barrats prosecuted in the county courts that year."
There was once a crime called 'being too fond of lawsuits' — and its name was barrat.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of barrat
Barrat entered English from Old French barat, meaning trickery, deceit, or trouble-making, a word of uncertain ultimate origin. It was adopted into English legal vocabulary in the medieval period to name the offence of fomenting quarrels and provoking groundless litigation. From the same source come the derivative terms barrator, for the offender, and barratry, for the practice, which later acquired a distinct sense in maritime law.
Related word forms
How barrat is actually used
Barrat is an archaic legal term, encountered today mainly in historical texts and discussions of old common-law offences; it carries no modern everyday usage.
Easily confused with barrat
Barratry is the broader noun covering the practice itself (and, in admiralty law, misconduct by a ship's master), while barrat denotes the single offence or act.
A barrette is a hair clip; despite the similar spelling it has no connection to the legal offence of barrat.