Fifth-amendment
noun
1.
an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, providing chiefly that no person be required to testify against himself or herself in a criminal case and that no person be subjected to a second trial for an offense for which he or she has been duly tried previously.
noun
1.
an amendment to the US Constitution stating that no person may be compelled to testify against himself and that no person may be tried for a second time on a charge for which he has already been acquitted
2.
(US) take the fifth, take the fifth amendment, to refuse to answer a question on the grounds that it might incriminate oneself
One of the ten amendments to the United States Constitution that make up the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment imposes restrictions on the government’s prosecution of persons accused of crimes. It prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy and mandates due process of law.
Note: To “take the Fifth” is to refuse to testify because the testimony could lead to self-incrimination.
Read Also:
- Fifth avenue
One of the main thoroughfares of Manhattan. Note: The avenue is known for its fashionable shops. Note: Fifth Avenue separates the East Side of Manhattan from the West Side.
- Fifth-column
noun 1. a group of people who act traitorously and subversively out of a secret sympathy with an enemy of their country. 2. (originally) Franco sympathizers in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War: so called in allusion to a statement in 1936 that the insurgents had four columns marching on Madrid and a fifth column […]
- Fifth-commandment
noun 1. “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”: fifth of the Ten Commandments.
- Fifth cranial nerve
fifth cranial nerve n. See trigeminal nerve.
- Fifth-dimension
noun, Mathematics, Physics. 1. a theoretical dimension beyond or in addition to a fourth dimension.