Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

INHIBIT, v. Sc. Law usage: to prohibit (a debtor) from parting with his heritable property to the prejudice of a creditor (Sc. 1798 Monthly Mag. (Sept.) 176, 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 43), effected by an order of court or writ.Sc. 1730 Kames Decisions (1766) 3:
The objector . . . would have the inhibiting adjudger to be ranked primo loco, in place of the annualrenter.Sc. 1750 W. MacFarlane Geneal. Coll. (S.H.S.) II. 28:
But Cluny himself was put to the Horn and inhibited Three Years before.Sc. 1826 Blackwood's Mag. (Aug.) 348:
The creditor may obtain a warrant inhibiting his debtor from selling his heritable estate, till such time as his debt is paid. . . . The instrument of inhibition must be registered within forty days, otherwise it is void.Sc. 1929 Green's Encyclopedia VIII. 181:
By the Court of Session Act, 1868, a warrant to inhibit inserted in the will of a summons passing the Signet has the same force and effect as letters.

Hence inhibiter, -or, one who does this (Sc. 1702 Dalrymple Decisions (1758) 42); inhibition, the order by which this is done; also an order by which a husband may prevent the giving of credit to his wife.Sc. 1704 Fountainhall Decisions II. 226:
In regard the tutor was selling land to pay off the debt, she raised and executed an inhibition against them, to stop the sale.Sc. 1734 J. Spotiswood Hope's Practicks 340:
The Defender . . . is allowed to purge the Inhibition, by Payment of the Sums for Security whereof it was raised, and the Inhibiter is bound to grant an Assignation to the Debt and Inhibition.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles i. vi. § 16:
A husband, who suspects that his wife may hurt his fortune by high living, may use the remedy of inhibition against her.Sc. 1830 W. Chambers Bk. Scotland 218:
Husbands in Scotland may protect themselves from the future debts of their wives, by expeding a simple process in the Court of Session, called an Inhibition, which is recorded, and published in the newspapers.Sc. 1838 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 494:
Like every other signet letter, the inhibition contains a narrative and a will. The narrative recites the ground of debt . . . the will of the letters inhibits the debtor from selling, annailzieing, wadsetting, disponing, and so forth, his lands, teinds, heritages, etc.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 29:
The husband may recall this agency [of his wife buying in his name], as regards individual tradesmen, by private notice, and as regards the public, by serving on the wife and registering “Letters of Inhibition.”Sc. 1929 Green's Encyclopedia VIII. 189:
By the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1924, it was provided that inhibitions should no longer be renewable to the effect of keeping the old inhibition in life, but should prescribe absolutely on the lapse of five years.