Forms: 3 feluni(e, felonnie, (felun(n)e, -i, 4 felunnye), 3–5 felonny(e, 3–7 feloni(e, -ye, 4 felone, -ounie, -y, -owny, 6–7 fellony, 3– felony. [ad. Fr. felonie = Pr. fellonia, felnia, feunia, Sp. felonia, It. fellonia:—Com. Romanic *felloni·a, f. fellone FELON; see -Y.]
† 1. Villany, wickedness, baseness. Obs.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 31/75.
| Ake ȝut for al is felonie, ne bi-lefde ore louerd nouȝt | |
| Þat manie sike men þat comen þare-neiȝ, to hele weren i-brouȝt. |
c. 1320. The Seuyn Sages, 1003.
| With gret felonie and with wouhgh, | |
| Hou Ypocras his neveu slowgh. |
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 317.
| And if I be withinne wall | |
| Of stones closed, than I shall | |
| Unto the stones clepe and crie, | |
| And tellen hem thy felonie. |
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxiii. 496. He hathe well shewed atte this tyme a grete parte of his grete felony.
† b. Anger, wrath. Obs. After OF. in which it is very common.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 62/298.
| For ore louerd euenede him-sulf to a lomb, þoruȝ seint Iohan þe Baptist, | |
| And for it is with-oute felonie, and milde ase ihesu crist. |
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 439.
| Bot fra his presence went in hy, | |
| For he dred sayr his felouny. |
1485. Caxton, Paris & Vienna (1868), 38. Sodeynly the doulphyn was moeued in grete felonnye, and wold not suffre hym to ende hys wordes.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. viii. 100. Turnus smyttin full of fellony.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccxxvi. 510. So moche rose the felony of the romayns yt suche as were next to ye conclaue … brake vp the dore of the conclaue.
† c. Daring, recklessness. Obs.
1485. Caxton, Charles the Grete, 109. Incontynent tho ballant the admyrall bygan to lawhe for felonnye.
† 2. Guile, deceit, treachery, perfidy. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1446. He biþoȝte him of felonie.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 4047.
| The Sarezynes, for felounie, | |
| Soone senten out a spie, | |
| That hadde be Crystene in hys youthe; | |
| Many an evil wrenche he couthe! |
c. 1400. Beryn, 1169. She hid so hir felony, & spak so in covert.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 78. He ansuerde to him with a mouthe ful of felonnye that he was wise ynough for to correcte his seruauntes.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, ii. 4. Whan by hys felony he slew Baudouyn.
† 3. A crime, misdeed, sin. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16852 (Gött.).
| Ioseph, þat his freind was lele, | |
| was of arimathie, | |
| Ne grantted neuer wid will ne werk, | |
| to þaire gret felune. |
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 205. Þe fyrste felonye þe falce fende wroȝt.
c. 1400. Prymer, 63. Schewe to me my felonyes & trespassis!
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. vii. 5. She … lamentably recounted to hym all the felonyes and iniuries done to her.
4. Law. a. (Feudal Law.) An act on the part of a vassal which involved the forfeiture of his fee.
[1292. Britton, I. vi. § 3. Volums, que lour terres alienez puis lour felonies fetes soint eschetes as seignurages des feez.]
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 207.
| Somond haf þei Jon, to Philip courte him dede, | |
| To tak his Jugement of þat felonie [MS. felonse; rime-word Bretaynie]. |
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxciii. 169. Or els the man … shold be falsely endyted of forest or of felonye.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), II. 471. The term felony … seems … to have originally signified the act or offence by which an estate or fief was forfeited and escheated to the lord.
b. (Common and Statute Law.) The general name for a class of crimes which may loosely be said to be regarded by the law as of a graver character than those called misdemeanours.
The class comprises those offences the penalty of which formerly included forfeiture of lands and goods, and corruption of blood, together with others that have been added to the list by statute. (But see quot. 1883.) Properly including treason, but often used in opposition to it.
[1292. Britton, I. ii. § 10. Si la felonie eyt esté fete hors de mesoun.]
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1310.
| Sle no man wyþ þyn honde | |
| Wyþ outyn iustyce, for felonye. |
1472. in Surtees Misc. (1890), 24. Thomas Dransfeld is a theef and has knowelach felony.
1531. Dial. on Laws Eng., I. viii. (1638), 18. If a man steal goods to the value of twelve pence or above, it is felony.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 64 b. I have accused this man of felonie because he tooke my pursse by the high waie side.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), 113. L. Archbishop of Canterbury reported the Acte of wemen convicted of small felonyes.
a. 1633. Austin, Medit. (1635), 191. Christ knew full well the cause of his [St. John Baptist’s] Imprisonment. It was neither, for Felony, nor Treason; but, for being witnesse, to the Truth.
1727. De Foe, A System of Magic, I. iii. (1840), 84. Did he expect I could save him when he committed a felony even with his fetters on, and while he was in Newgate?
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 94. Felony … comprizes every species of crime, which occasioned at common law the forfeiture of lands or goods.
1773. Brydone, Sicily, vi. (1809), 67. Poets have ever been the greatest of all thieves; and happy it is that poetical theft is no felony; otherwise, I am afraid, Parnassus would have been but thinly peopled.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 118. It was made felony in the reign of Edward the Third to steal a hawk.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., i. All means short of felony.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wealth, Wks. (Bohn), II. 73. The rights of property nothing but felony and treason can override.
1883. J. F. Stephen, Hist. Criminal Law, II. 192. It is usually said that felony means a crime which involved the punishment of forfeiture, but this definition would be too large, for it would include misprision of treason, which is a misdemeanour.
transf. 1831. Brewster, Newton (1855), II. xv. 43. The man who conceives his fellow to be capable of such intellectual felony, avows the possibility of himself committing it, and almost substantiates the weakest evidence of the worst accusers.
1859. Smiles, Self-Help, x. (1860), 22. The acquisition of knowledge may protect a man against the meaner felonies of life.
c. Felony-de-se: an action or instance in which a person is ‘felo-de-se.’ Cf. FELO-DE-SE 2.
1822. Byron, Vis. Judg., xciv.
| But that indeed was hopeless as can be, | |
| Quite a poetic felony ‘DE SE.’ |
1835. Hood, The Dead Robbery, i.
| Both have made many melancholy martyrs, | |
| But p’rhaps, of all the felonies de se, | |
| By ponds, and pistols, razors, ropes, and garters, | |
| Two-thirds have been through want of £. s. d.! |
