ˈjəstə̇s noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English justice, justise, from Old English & Old French; Old English justise, from Old French justice, justise, from Latin justitia, from justus just + -itia -ice
1.
a. : the maintenance or administration of what is just : impartial adjustment of conflicting claims : the assignment of merited rewards or punishments : just treatment
meting out evenhanded justice
the natural aspiration for justice in the human heart — W.A.White
a splendid example of divine justice — M.W.Fishwick
social justice
b.
[Middle English justice, justise, from Anglo-French & Medieval Latin; Anglo-French justice, from Medieval Latin justitia, from Latin]
: a person duly commissioned to hold courts or to try and decide controversies and administer justice: as
(1) : a judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England, or formerly of the Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas, or Exchequer
(2) : a judge of a common-law court or a superior court of record
(3) : a justice of the peace : an inferior magistrate
a police justice
traffic court justice
c.
(1) : administration of law : the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity
(2) : infliction of punishment
promises the indulgence of the jury to the husband who has himself executed justice — H.M.Parshley
2.
a.
(1) : the quality or characteristic of being just, impartial, or fair : fairness , integrity , honesty
possessed a keen sense of honor and justice
pointed out, with equal justice , that … there are good businesses and bad — D.W.Brogan
“it was nobody's fault …,” she added, with scrupulous justice — Ellen Glasgow
the same standards used in steel must in justice be applied to other industries — Mary K. Hammond
(2) : the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action
the courts are not helped as they … ought to be in the adaptation of law to justice — B.N.Cardozo
(3) : conformity to such principle or ideal : righteousness
defends the justice of his cause
b.
(1) in Platonism : the condition of harmony existing in a state between its members when each citizen occupies a place in accordance with his merit : the highest of the four cardinal virtues
(2) in Aristotelianism : the practice of virtue toward others — see commutative justice , distributive justice , retributive justice
(3) : that virtue which gives to each his due
c.
(1) : the quality of conforming to positive law
(2) : the quality of conforming to positive law and also to divine or natural law
3. : conformity to truth, fact, or reason : correctness , rightfulness
complained with justice that English waxes and wanes like the moon — English Language Arts
admitted that there was much justice in these observations — T.L.Peacock
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- bring to justice
- do justice