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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Presentment

Presentment \Pre*sent"ment\, n.

  1. The act of presenting, or the state of being presented; presentation. `` Upon the heels of my presentment.''
    --Shak.

  2. Setting forth to view; delineation; appearance; representation; exhibition.

    Power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, And give it false presentment.
    --Milton.

  3. (Law)

    1. The notice taken by a grand jury of any offence from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them, as, the presentment of a nuisance, a libel, or the like; also, an inquisition of office and indictment by a grand jury; an official accusation presented to a tribunal by the grand jury in an indictment, or the act of offering an indictment; also, the indictment itself.

    2. The official notice (formerly required to be given in court) of the surrender of a copyhold estate.
      --Blackstone.

      Presentment of a bill of exchange, the offering of a bill to the drawee for acceptance, or to the acceptor for payment. See Bill of exchange, under Bill.
      --Mozley & W.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
presentment

"act of presenting," c.1300, from Old French presentement "presentation (of a person) at a ceremony" (12c.), from presenter (see present (v.)).

Wiktionary
presentment

n. 1 (context legal English) A statement made on oath by a jury. (from 15th c.) 2 (context legal English) The notice taken by a grand jury of any offence from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them. 3 (context ecclesiastical law English) A formal complaint submitted to a bishop or archdeacon. (from 16th c.) 4 The act of presenting something for acceptance; now specifically, presenting something (e.g. a bill or cheque) for payment. (from 16th c.) 5 (context now rare English) An artistic representation; a picture. (from 16th c.) 6 Presentation of a performance, as of a play or work of music. (from 17th c.) 7 (context now rare English) The aspect or form in which something presents itself; appearance. (from 17th c.) 8 The official notice (formerly required to be given in court) of the surrender of a copyhold estate.

WordNet
presentment
  1. n. an accusation of crime made by a grand jury on its own initiative [syn: notification]

  2. a document that must be accepted and paid by another person

  3. a show or display; the act of presenting something to sight or view; "the presentation of new data"; "he gave the customer a demonstration" [syn: presentation, demonstration]

Wikipedia
Presentment

A presentment is a formal presentation of a matter such as a complaint, indictment or bill of exchange. In 12th century England, juries of presentment would hear inquests in order to establish whether someone should be presented for a crime.

Usage examples of "presentment".

But to treat the human Soul as a fair presentment of the Soul of the Universe is like picking out potters and blacksmiths and making them warrant for discrediting an entire well-ordered city.

Kind: when it must take in something other than itself, its aspiration is the presentment of Matter to the incoming power.

When the desiring faculty is stirred, there is a presentment of the object--a sort of sensation, in announcement and in picture, of the experience--calling us to follow and to attain: the personality, whether it resists or follows and procures, is necessarily thrown out of equilibrium.

Taking it that the presentment of fancy is not a matter of our will and choice, how can we think those acting at its dictation to be free agents?

Soul as a fair presentment of the Soul of the Universe is like picking out potters and blacksmiths and making them warrant for discrediting an entire well-ordered city.

Substitution for a presentment or indictment by a grand jury of the proceeding by information, after examination and commitment by a magistrate, certifying to the probable guilt of the defendant, with the right on his part to the aid of counsel, and to the cross-examination of the witnesses produced for the prosecution is due process of law.

Fifth Amendment, which gives right to presentment by a grand jury in case of infamous crimes.

The question with the citizen to whom this oath is to be proposed must be a fearful one, for while the bill does not declare that perjury may be assigned for such false swearing nor fix any penalty for the offense, we must not forget that martial law prevails and that every person is answerable to a military commission, without previous presentment by a grand jury, for any charge that may be made against him, and that the supreme authority of the military commander determines the question as to what is an offense and what is to be the measure of punishment.

While the jury were deliberating on this extraordinary presentment, the chief justice sent for them, and suddenly, even somewhat irregularly, dismissed them.

They were unwilling to carry into force the presentment act, because the money advanced should be one-half repaid, and, while held as a loan, be chargeable with interest.

These bodies, which refused presentments on grounds that it was not desirable or necessary to make them, were amongst the most clamorous in the kingdom for their share of patronage in dispensing the money and food for which no repayment was to be made.

Anywhere else it would have been preposterous as a decorative presentment, but here, in this little nook where the coureurs de bois, the halfbreeds, the traders and the missionaries had founded a centre of assembly, it was the best possible expression in the life so formed at hap-hazard, and so controlled by the coarsest and narrowest influences.

Stereoscopic Company in Regent Street, gazing at presentments of Madame Svengali in all sizes and costumes.

It is so thoroughly suffused and permeated with the glow of mystical romance, the whole atmosphere of the poem is so exquisitely appropriate to the subject, and so marvellously preserved throughout, that our lack of belief in the reality of the scenes presented to us detracts but little from the pleasure afforded by the artistic excellence of its presentment.

Inquests of novel disseisin (a legal procedure to provide redress for those who have had their freehold unjustly taken), of mort d’ancester (a legal procedure to provide redress for those who have been denied an inheritance), and of darrein presentment (last presentation), shall not be held elsewhere than in their own county courts and that in manner following,—We, or, if we should be out of the realm, our chief justiciar, will send two justiciars through every county four times a year, who shall, along with four knights of the county chosen by the county, hold the said assize in the county court, on the day and in the place of meeting of that court.