trespassing

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,821 of 15,258leans spoken

Trespassing is entering private land you have no right to be on. No trespassing, caught trespassing, trespassing on the line.

In England and Wales it is usually a civil wrong rather than a crime, which is why signs threatening prosecution are mostly bluff — though trespassing on a railway is a criminal offence. Scotland has a right of responsible access instead.

Definitions of trespassing

1nountrespassingEntering private land you have no right to be on.B2
“The sign on the gate said No Trespassing, so we didn't go into the field.”

trespassing is an offence.

Also accepted in games: trespass

Where it comes from

Old French
trespas — passage; offense against the law
Middle English
trespas
English
trespass
English, today
trespassing

trespass Borrowed into Middle English trespas, from Old French trespas (“passage; offense against the law”), from trespasser.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Crime & Law

Practise this word

trespassing in the wild

Photography and historical documentation are heavily featured in the hobby, generally involving trespassing onto private property.
Urban exploration
Most trespassing is common to Pakistani and Indian fishermen operating along the coastline of the Indian state of Gujarat and the Pakistani province of Sindh.
India–Pakistan maritime trespassing
Local Medfield police regularly patrol the grounds, and trespassing is strictly forbidden past dark because of the unsafe condition of many of the buildings.
Medfield State Hospital
As of June 13, 2020, large signs at the north entrance indicated that the land is private property owned by Dow Chemical Company and trespassing would be prosecuted.
Maple Beach, Pennsylvania

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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