civil contempt

1. 1.

   a failure to follow a court order that benefits someone else

   Broadercontempt of court

   law

Questions about civil contempt

What does civil contempt mean?

civil contempt means "a failure to follow a court order that benefits someone else".

Is civil contempt a common word?

civil contempt 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.