deforcement means A keeping out by force or wrong; a wrongful withholding, as of lands or tenements, to which another has a right. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “deforcement” is a great word
DEFORCEMENT — [Noun] The wrongful withholding of lands or tenements from their rightful owner, or forcible resistance to an officer in the execution of law. From Middle English, from Anglo-French deforcer, from Old French desforcier, from des- (expressing removal) + forcier ("to force"). First attested in the 15th century. Unlike "disseisin" (which specifically denotes wrongful dispossession from a freehold) or "obstruction of justice" (a modern, general term for impeding legal proceedings), deforcement is the archaic, stubborn act of holding fast against the king’s writ. It is the barred gate slammed before the sheriff, the forged title hidden in an iron chest, the silent, armed men on the contested meadow—a feudal defiance where law met not argument, but the sheer, unyielding weight of the world.
noun
- A keeping out by force or wrong; a wrongful withholding, as of lands or tenements, to which another has a right.
- Resistance to an officer in the execution of law. It is similar to resisting arrest or obstruction of justice in modern law.“There was something in the air and tone of the young soldier, which seemed to argue that his interference was not likely to be confined to mere expostulation; and which, if it promised finally of a process of battery and deforcement, would certainly commence with the unpleasant circumstances necessary for founding such a complaint.”