bill of attainder

1. 1.

   a legislative act finding a person guilty of treason or felony without a trial

   “bills of attainder are prohibited by the Constitution of the United States”

   Broaderbill

   law

Questions about bill of attainder

What does bill of attainder mean?

bill of attainder means "a legislative act finding a person guilty of treason or felony without a trial".

Is bill of attainder a common word?

bill of attainder is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.