LATITAT

In old English practice. A writ which Issued in personal actions, on the return of non est inventus to a bill of Middlesex ; so called from the emphatic word in its recital, in which it was “testified that the defendant lurks [latitat] and wanders about” in the county. 3 Bl. Comm. 286. Abolished by St 2 Wm. IV. c. 39.