prejudication

plural prejudications

1. countableuncountablejudgment without due examination of facts and evidence

   trust in sin is the most terrible chastisement with which God can punish the sinner, and you draw from it a prejudication of salvation and of penitence.

   1879, Jean-Baptiste Massillon, translated by William Dickson, Sermons, Sermon XVIII: On False Trust

   1 more example

   "It is very singular," I replied, "that the mercantile transactions of London citizens should become involved with revolutions and rebellions." "Not at a', man—not at a'," returned Mr. Jarvie; "that's a' your silly prejudications. I read whiles in the lang dark nights, and I hae read in Baker's Chronicle[18] that the merchants o'London could gar the Bank of Genoa break their promise to advance a mighty sum to the King o' Spain, whereby the sailing of the Grand Spanish Armada was put aff for a haill year—What think you of that, sir?"

   1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

   Synonyms: prejudgment

2. countableuncountablelawA preliminary inquiry and determination about something which belongs to a matter in dispute.

   1 more example

   Maryland, in the instructions to her delegates to accede to the Confederation, had protested against this condition, and Maryland was right. Its acceptance would have operated as an ex parte adjudication or a prejudication of all claims against the State, and would have barred all proceedings under the ninth article of the Confederation, to which any claimant State might be entitled.

   1899, Clement Anselm Evans, Confederate Military History, Volume 1/Part 2/Chapter 2

3. countableuncountableA previous treatment and decision of a point; a precedent.