n. [ OE., adj., cruel, n., villain, ruffian, traitor, whitlow, F. félon traitor, in OF. also, villain, fr. LL. felo. See Fell, a. ] 1. (Law) A person who has committed a felony. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A person guilty or capable of heinous crime. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Med.) A kind of whitlow; a painful imflammation of the periosteum of a finger, usually of the last joint.

Syn. -- Criminal; convict; malefactor; culprit. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Characteristic of a felon; malignant; fierce; malicious; cruel; traitorous; disloyal. [ 1913 Webster ]

Vain shows of love to vail his felon hate. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having the quality of felony; malignant; malicious; villainous; traitorous; perfidious; in a legal sense, done with intent to commit a crime; as, felonious homicide. [ 1913 Webster ]

O thievish Night,
Why should'st thou, but for some felonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars? Milton.

-- Fe*lo"ni*ous*ly, adv. -- Fe*lo"ni*ous*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. OF. feloneus. Cf. Felonious. ] Wicked; felonious. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A body of felons; specifically, the convict population of a penal colony. Howitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The bittersweet nightshade (Solanum Dulcamara). See Bittersweet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Felonies [ OE. felonie cruelty, OF. felonie, F. félonie treachery, malice. See Felon, n. ] 1. (Feudal Law) An act on the part of the vassal which cost him his fee by forfeiture. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (O.Eng.Law) An offense which occasions a total forfeiture either lands or goods, or both, at the common law, and to which capital or other punishment may be added, according to the degree of guilt. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A heinous crime; especially, a crime punishable by death or imprisonment. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Forfeiture for crime having been generally abolished in the United States, the term felony, in American law, has lost this point of distinction; and its meaning, where not fixed by statute, is somewhat vague and undefined; generally, however, it is used to denote an offense of a high grade, punishable either capitally or by a term of imprisonment. In Massachusetts, by statute, any crime punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison, and no other, is a felony; so in New York. the tendency now is to obliterate the distinction between felonies and misdemeanors; and this has been done partially in England, and completely in some of the States of the Union. The distinction is purely arbitrary, and its entire abolition is only a question of time. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ There is no lawyer who would undertake to tell what a felony is, otherwise than by enumerating the various kinds of offenses which are so called. originally, the word felony had a meaning: it denoted all offenses the penalty of which included forfeiture of goods; but subsequent acts of Parliament have declared various offenses to be felonies, without enjoining that penalty, and have taken away the penalty from others, which continue, nevertheless, to be called felonies, insomuch that the acts so called have now no property whatever in common, save that of being unlawful and purnishable. J. S. Mill. [ 1913 Webster ]

To compound a felony. See under Compound, v. t. [ 1913 Webster ]