(verb) – To impose a burden, obligation, or Hen; to create a claim against property; to claim, to demand; to accuse; to instruct a jury on matters of law. In the first sense above given, a jury In a criminal case is “charged” with the duty of trying the prisoner (or, as otherwise expressed, with his fate or his “deliverance”) as soon as they are impaneled and sworn, and at this moment the prisoner’s legal “jeopardy” begins. This is altogether a different matter from “charging” the jury in the sense of giving them instructions on matters of law, which is a function of the court Tomasson v. State, 112 Tenn. 596, 79 S. W. 803.
(noun) – In general. An incumbrance, lien, or burden; an obligation or duty; a liability; an accusation. Darling v. Rogers, 22 Wend. (N. Y.) 491. In contracts. An obligation, binding upon him who enters into It which may be removed or taken away by a discharge. Termes de la Ley. An undertaking to keep the custody of another person’s goods. State v. Clark, 86 Me. 194, 29 Atl. 984. An obligation entered into by the owner of an estate, which binds the estate for its performance. Com. Dig. “Rent” c 6; 2 Ball B. 223. In the law of wills. A responsibility or liability imposed by the testator upon a devisee personally, or upon the land devised. In equity pleading. An allegation in the bill of matters which disprove or avoid a defense which it is alleged the defendaut is supposed to pretend or intend to set up. Story, Eq. PI.