Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Fact

Fact

(făkt)
,
Noun.
[L.
factum
, fr.
facere
to make or do. Cf.
Feat
,
Affair
,
Benefit
,
Defect
,
Fashion
, and
-fy
.]
1.
A doing, making, or preparing.
[Obs.]
A project for the
fact
and vending
Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies.
B. Jonson.
2.
An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
What might instigate him to this devilish
fact
, I am not able to conjecture.
Evelyn.
He who most excels in
fact
of arms.
Milton.
3.
Reality; actuality; truth;
as, he, in
fact
, excelled all the rest; the
fact
is, he was beaten.
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
.
I do not grant the
fact
.
De Foe.
This reasoning is founded upon a
fact
which is not true.
Roger Long.
☞ 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.
Syn. – Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.

Webster 1828 Edition


Fact

FACT

,
Noun.
[L. factum, from facio, to make or do.]
1.
Any thing done, or that comes to pass; an act; a deed; an effect produced or achieved; an event. Witnesses are introduced into court to prove a fact. Facts are stubborn things. To deny a fact knowingly is to lie.
2.
Reality; truth; as, in fact. So we say, indeed.