Meanings
- USeuphemisticinformaluncountablelawThe act of a police officer giving false testimony (perjury).
“Testilying,” police fabricating evidence or lying in court, is a type of police corruption.
2007, Jack R. Greene, “Courtroom testimony and ‘testilying’”, in The Encyclopedia of Police Science, volume 1, page 2732 more examples
Several officers also told us that the practice of police falsification in connection with such arrests is so common in certain precincts that it has spawned its own word: “testilying.“
[1994, Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department, Committee Report, page 36Shadow vigilantism can also be seen in the conduct of officials within the system who feel morally justified in subverting the system because they see it as regularly and indifferently producing failures of justice.[…] It’s also apparent in police “testilying” to subvert search and seizure technicalities (and judicial toleration of it) and in prosecutorial overcharging to compensate for past perceived justice failures.
2018, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah Robinson, Shadow Vigilantes: How Distrust in the Justice System Breeds a New Kind of Lawlessness: Section III. The Subversions and Perversions of Shadow Vigilantism
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of testilie
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Blend of testifying + lying. Coined by New York City police officers, appearing in print in 1994 in the report of the Mollen Commission (see 1994 quotation).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
testilying. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/testilying
“testilying.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/testilying. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “testilying,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/testilying.
Source: testilying on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.