What does demurrer mean?
Demurrer is a noun with its strongest home in the courtroom. In legal procedure, especially in jurisdictions descended from English common law, a demurrer is a formal pleading by which one party concedes, for the sake of argument, the truth of the other side's factual allegations but insists that those facts are insufficient in law to justify a judgment. In effect, it argues that even taken at face value, the opposing claim should fail. Courts may sustain a demurrer, ending the matter, or overrule it, allowing the case to proceed. Outside the law, the word appears more rarely as a general term for an objection or expression of dissent, carrying a formal, slightly archaic flavor. Derived from the verb demur, which traces back through Old French to the Latin de- and morari, meaning to delay, demurrer retains something of that sense of standing still — a deliberate halt to proceedings on grounds of principle. Though largely confined to legal writing today, it remains a precise, useful term wherever objections are made formally.
nounA formal objection raised in a legal pleading, arguing that even if the opposing party's facts are true, they do not state a valid claim or defense. More generally, an act of demurring; a protest or objection.
- A pleading in common-law procedure that admits the truth of an opponent's factual allegations but asserts they are legally insufficient to support a claim or defense.
- An act of objecting or taking exception; a protest or expression of reluctance (now rare).
"The defendant's demurrer challenged the sufficiency of the complaint rather than disputing its facts."
"The judge sustained the demurrer, holding that the complaint failed to state a cause of action."
"Despite his quiet demurrer, the committee pressed ahead with the vote."
Regular plural, used chiefly in legal contexts when referring to multiple filings or objections.
"Both defendants filed demurrers challenging the sufficiency of the complaint."
In court, a demurrer is the lawyer's way of saying: 'Even if everything you claim is true, you still lose.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of demurrer
Demurrer comes from the Anglo-French demurrer and ultimately from the Latin de- plus morari, 'to delay' or 'to stay', the same root that gives us moratorium. It entered English legal usage in the medieval period as the written form of a party's act of demurring — stopping or delaying proceedings by challenging the legal sufficiency of the opponent's pleadings. Its relatives include demur itself, the adjective demure (which took a separate semantic path toward 'modest'), and delay-related words such as moratorium from the same Latin stem mora, 'delay'.
How demurrer is actually used
Primarily a technical term of Anglo-American law, especially in US state courts that retain common-law pleading forms; in most modern federal and many state courts it has been replaced by the motion to dismiss. The general sense of 'an objection' is literary and somewhat old-fashioned.
Easily confused with demurrer
'Demure' is an adjective meaning modest and reserved, while 'demurrer' is a noun for a legal objection — the two share a distant root but have entirely different meanings.