Accessary after the fact

Fact Fact (f[a^]kt), n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf. {Feat}, {Affair}, {Benefit}, {Defect}, {Fashion}, and {-fy}.] 1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]

2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance. [1913 Webster]

What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]

He who most excels in fact of arms. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten. [1913 Webster]

4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds with false facts. [1913 Webster]

I do not grant the fact. --De Foe. [1913 Webster]

This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true. --Roger Long. [1913 Webster]

Note: The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the law. --Burrill --Bouvier. [1913 Webster]

{Accessary before the fact}, or {Accessary after the fact}. See under {Accessary}.

{Matter of fact}, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.

Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance. [1913 Webster]