Definition of forfeit

• n. - Injury; wrong; mischief.
• n. - A thing forfeit or forfeited; what is or may be taken from one in requital of a misdeed committed; that which is lost, or the right to which is alienated, by a crime, offense, neglect of duty, or breach of contract; hence, a fine; a mulct; a penalty; as, he who murders pays the forfeit of his life.
• n. - Something deposited and redeemable by a sportive fine; -- whence the game of forfeits.
• n. - Lost or alienated for an offense or crime; liable to penal seizure.
• n. - To lose, or lose the right to, by some error, fault, offense, or crime; to render one's self by misdeed liable to be deprived of; to alienate the right to possess, by some neglect or crime; as, to forfeit an estate by treason; to forfeit reputation by a breach of promise; -- with to before the one acquiring what is forfeited.
• v. i. - To be guilty of a misdeed; to be criminal; to transgress.
• v. i. - To fail to keep an obligation.
• p. p. / a. - In the condition of being forfeited; subject to alienation.