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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
subpoena
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
issue
▪ Clinger also issued Thomason a subpoena demanding any records pertaining to the travel office case.
▪ In separate votes, the panel agreed unanimously to issue 43 subpoenas.
▪ The Senate committee also reached an agreement with the White House that averted the need to issue specific subpoenas there.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Another three of the president's advisors were subpoenaed.
▪ If you refuse to attend the trial we can always get you subpoenaed.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A subpoena to them, I suggest, is bound to uncover a good deal of information, including doctors' names.
▪ Clinger also issued Thomason a subpoena demanding any records pertaining to the travel office case.
▪ He then handed me two grand-jury subpoenas, one to produce physical evidence a blood specimen and one to testify.
▪ In separate votes, the panel agreed unanimously to issue 43 subpoenas.
▪ Only two of the 51 subpoenas focus on Republican wrongdoing.
▪ That course would doubtless prompt an application by the P.C.A. to set aside the subpoena on grounds of public interest immunity.
▪ The commission said it could revive the subpoenas if the editors failed to cooperate with the inquiry, which opens this week.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Both the teacher and the board can subpoena witnesses.
▪ Lipranzer will be called, apparently to say I instructed him not to subpoena my home phone tolls.
▪ Nor can police subpoena his records from Georgetown University Medical Center, where he was treated for minor injuries.
▪ The police would subpoena and study this footage.
▪ The truth commission intends to subpoena Basson, who has been invited to apply for amnesty.
▪ These people ought to subpoena some 10-year-olds who could tell them what really goes on.
▪ This is an important development, which allows litigants before domestic courts effectively to subpoena the Commission.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subpoena

Subpoena \Sub*p[oe]"na\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Subp[oe]naed; p. pr. & vb. n. Subp[oe]naing.] (Law) To serve with a writ of subp[oe]na; to command attendance in court by a legal writ, under a penalty in case of disobedience.

Subpoena

Subpoena \Sub*p[oe]"na\, n. [NL., fr. L. sub under + poena punishment. See Pain.] (Law) A writ commanding the attendance in court, as a witness, of the person on whom it is served, under a penalty; the process by which a defendant in equity is commanded to appear and answer the plaintiff's bill. [Written also subpena.]

Subp[oe]na ad testificandum. [NL.] A writ used to procure the attendance of a witness for the purpose of testifying.

Subp[oe]na duces tecum. [NL.] A writ which requires a witness to attend and bring certain documents.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
subpoena

early 15c., sub pena, from Medieval Latin sub poena "under penalty," the first words of the writ commanding the presence of someone under penalty of failure, from Latin sub "under" (see sub-) + poena, ablative of poena "penalty" (see penal). The verb is attested from 1630s.

Wiktionary
subpoena

n. (context legal English) A writ requiring someone to appear in court to give testimony. vb. To summon with a subpoen

WordNet
subpoena
  1. n. a writ issued by court authority to compel the attendance of a witness at a judicial proceeding; disobedience may be punishable as a contempt of court [syn: subpoena ad testificandum]

  2. v. serve or summon with a subpoena; "The witness and her records were subpoenaed"

Wikipedia
Subpoena

A subpoena (also subpœna) is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:

  1. subpoena ad testificandum orders a person to testify before the ordering authority or face punishment. The subpoena can also request the testimony to be given by phone or in person.
  2. subpoena duces tecum orders a person or organization to bring physical evidence before the ordering authority or face punishment. This is often used for requests to mail copies of documents to the requesting party or directly to court.

Usage examples of "subpoena".

He recalled a time when Castellano had gone to Florida with Tommy Bilotti to avoid a subpoena.

Third, all officers and persons in the military, naval and revenue services, or in any branch of the public service under the authority of the United States Government, are required, upon subpoena issued by direction of the said commissioners, to appear before them at such time and place as may be designated in said subpoena and to give testimony on oath touching such matters as may be inquired of by the commissioners, and to produce such books, papers, writings, and documents as they may be notified or required to produce by the commissioners, and as may be in their possession.

Benedict allows it, you can subpoena me to testify, that much legalese I understand.

The alternative was to watch the government wreak havoc in his life, issuing grand jury subpoenas to his bank, his accountant, his clients, his employees, even his neighbors.

Pentagon Papers story, a command decision that forced Nixon and his would-be enforcers to come out in the open with fangs bared, snarling threats to have everybody connected with the publication of the Pentagon Papers either lashed into jail or subpoenaed into so many courtrooms that all their minds would snap before they finally wound up in the poorhouse.

Thus far, he has shrugged off subpoenas for more than 100 of his taped conversations -- 64 from Jaworski and about 50 from the Rodino committee.

Many of these are overlapping, and nobody in Washington seems to know which set of subpoenas would have legal preference -- or even who will have to decide that question, if it ever comes up in real life.

Attorneys who were grinding out subpoenas to banks and currency exchanges and the courthouse, which would be served tomorrow to prevent records from going astray.

He was at the office by seven, with a game face on, high on coffee, bouncing around the halls bantering and laughing with the early shift, making lame but sporting jokes about other process servers on the way and reporters poking around and subpoenas flying here and there.

Eight signed civil subpoenas, with instructions for service attached, were clipped together in a folder.

If he and Randolph had, they might have been subpoenaed, not that Jeffrey had been particularly interested in possible axonal degeneration at the time of his trial.

However, if they need any clarifications they'd rather not have to subpoena me from civilian life.

The Moonlight Cove Police department's ability to access TRW's data base at will had to be a secret kept from TRW itself, for the company would not have cooperated in a wholesale disgorgement of its files without a subpoena.

Surely you know that your account records can be subpoenaed from the brokerage house.

Judy Liebert, formerly Chief Financial Officer for the Christian Coalition, told me she was present when Coalition President Reed personally destroyed documents subpoenaed by the government.