RESIST - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

RESISTAuthored

The Law Mind • 894 words

Definition

To oppose by direct, active, or quasi-forcible means. In legal usage, "resist" carries a narrower and more physical sense than mere disagreement or passive non-compliance. It describes conduct that actively interposes against a lawful act — most commonly, opposition to arrest, service of process, or the exercise of official authority — through some form of physical or forcible action.

The term appears most frequently in two related contexts:

1. Resisting arrest: Physically opposing or obstructing a law enforcement officer in the execution of a lawful arrest. The degree of force required varies by jurisdiction, but most modern formulations require more than verbal objection or passive non-cooperation.

2. Resisting other lawful authority: Opposing the execution of court orders, writs, or the exercise of an officer's official duty by physical interference. The underlying principle is the same: opposition through active, quasi-forcible means rather than legal challenge or inaction.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A protective coating or covering (as in photoresist, a materials-science term).

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To stand against; to withstand or obstruct; to strive against; to endeavor to counteract, defeat, or frustrate; to act in opposition to.

The Webster's definition reflects general opposition of any kind — including moral, intellectual, or spiritual resistance. The legal term is materially narrower: it demands active, physical, or quasi-forcible conduct. Passive refusal, verbal protest, or filing a legal objection does not constitute "resisting" in the legal sense. Researchers reading statutes or cases that use "resist" without definition should not import the broad common meaning.

Common Confusion

"Resist" is frequently conflated with "obstruct." The distinction matters. Obstruction is typically the broader category and may encompass passive, non-physical conduct — such as giving false information or failing to comply with a lawful command — that would not rise to the level of resistance in the classic legal sense. Resistance implies a more direct, active, and physical quality of opposition. Some modern statutes collapse the distinction by combining both into a single offense (e.g., "resisting or obstructing"), but courts and historical sources treat them as conceptually distinct. Researchers should check whether a jurisdiction's offense requires physical force or merely non-compliance.

Why It Matters in Research

The legal meaning of "resist" has remained relatively stable across the historical dictionaries, but its application has shifted significantly through statutory reform and case law. In older sources — including both editions of Black's and Bouvier's — the term is defined with reference to "quasi forcible means," a phrase that softens a pure force requirement but still excludes purely passive conduct. Modern statutes in many jurisdictions have broadened resistance offenses substantially, sometimes encompassing any knowing interference with an officer's duties, with or without physical force.

Researchers working with pre-twentieth-century materials should be alert to the tighter, more physical meaning embedded in historical formulations. A case or treatise holding that certain conduct did not constitute "resisting" may have been decided under a narrower standard than a modern statute would require — or vice versa.

The connection to arrest is the most common research pathway, but "resist" also appears in contempt doctrine, forcible entry and detainer, and obstruction-of-justice frameworks. Corpus researchers should not assume that every use of "resist" in historical sources maps onto the modern resisting-arrest offense. The word sometimes appears in broader procedural contexts — opposing a writ, contesting an order by force — that require separate analytical treatment.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law entry retrieved under this term is a mismatch (it provides the definition of "non-resident"), which is a transcription or indexing artifact. Researchers using digitized historical dictionaries should verify that retrieved entries are actually responsive to the search term.

Historical Dictionary Support

The two editions of Black's Law Dictionary are in close agreement, both defining "resist" as opposition "by direct action and quasi forcible means" and citing State v. Welch, 37 Wis. 196. Bouvier's aligns substantively, adding the qualifier "active" and citing a Wisconsin source at page 261 — a minor discrepancy in page reference that may reflect a different printing or a separate case. All three sources converge on the core principle: resistance is not mere disagreement but physical or forcible interposition.

None of the historical dictionaries address the modern statutory expansion of resistance offenses or grapple with the question of how much force is required. They also do not address the significant jurisdictional variation that has developed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries around whether verbal resistance, fleeing, or passive non-compliance can satisfy a resisting charge. Historical sources provide the baseline concept but are not reliable guides to modern doctrine on these questions.

Jurisdictional Note

Most U.S. jurisdictions criminalize resisting arrest by statute, but the required degree of force or opposition varies considerably. Some states require actual physical force; others treat knowing interference or flight as sufficient. A minority of jurisdictions limit the right to resist to unlawful arrests, while most have abolished any such right by statute. Researchers should not assume uniformity.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Resisting Arrest and Obstruction of Law Enforcement (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)

RESISTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

To oppose. This word prop- erly describes an opposition by direct action and quasi forcible means. 37 Wis. 196.

RESISTmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

To oppose. This word properly describes an opposition by direct action and quasi forcible means. “State v. Welch, $7 Wis. 196.. oo so

RESISTmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

of another place at the same time. This, at least, is the meaning in attachment laws. The word is of narrower significance, then, than "one domiciled in a place; " like inhabitant, it implies bodily presence.1 Non-resident is in general use in laws on the subject of attachments, divorce, registration, taxation, and elections. Non-resident administrator, bondholder, debtor, executor, guardian, and trustees, especially are of frequent recurrence. The act of Congress of March 3, 1875, § 8, provides for summoning as parties to a suit persons who are non-residents of the district, by service of an order of court, as therein provided.2 See generally ABODE; CITIZEN; DIVORCE; DOMICIL; DWELLING; FAMILY; HOME; INHABITANT; MINISTER, 3; PERMANENT; ТАХ, 2. 2. The surplus of an estate after all debts and particular legacies are discharged.1 This goes to the residuary legatee; if none is named, then to the next of kin, under the intestate law, Anciently, the residuum was taken by the executor, unless otherwise directed.1 If a legacy is not legally disposed of, it falls into the residuum. But where a specific devise of realty is invalid, the realty descends to the heir at law." To oppose, meet force with force; to hinder, prevent. Whence resistirg, resistance. See DEFENSE, 1. Resistance to a legal arrest is criminal, though the accused be innocent of the charge." "Resisting" does not necessarily imply assaulting or beating an officer. "Every person who knowingly and willfully obstructs, resists, or opposes any officer of the United States in serving, or attempting to serve or execute, any mesne process or warrant, or any rule or order of any court of the United States, or any other legal or judicial writ or process," shall be imprisoned not more than twelve months, and fined not more than three hundred dollars." The offense is complete when the person refuses to go with the officer. Resistance to an officer is opposing him by direct, active, and more or less forcible means. It implies something more than hindering, interrupting, preventing, baffling or circumventing. The gist of the offense is personal resistance, that is, personal oppo1 [2 Bl. Com. 514. 2 Johnson v. Holifield, 82 Ala. 127 (1886). • Barbour v. United States, 17 Ct. Cl. 153-54 (1881), cases. 4 Edwards v. United States, 103 U. S. 473-74 (1880), cases, Bradley, J.; State v. Clayton, 27 Kan. 445 (1882), cases, Brewer, J.; State v. Boecker, 56 Mo. 21 (1874). • Floyd v. State, 82 Ala. 23 (1886). • Woodworth v. State, 26 Ohio St. 196 (1875). 7 Act 30 April, 1790: R. S. § 5398, cases. • United States v. Lukens, 3 Wash. 335 (1818).

RESISTv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To stand against; to withstand; to obstruct. That mortal dint, Save He who reigns above, none can resist. Milton. To strive against; to endeavor to counteract, defeat, or frustrate; to act in opposition to; to oppose. God resisteth the proud. James iv. 6. Contrary to his high will Whom we resist. Milton. To counteract, as a force, by inertia or reaction. To be distasteful to. [Obs.] Shak.

RESISTv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To make opposition. Shak.

RESISTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A substance used to prevent a color or mordant from fixing on those parts to which it has been applied, either by acting machanically in preventing the color, etc., from reaching the cloth, or chemically in changing the color so as to render it incapable of fixing itself in the fibers.. The pastes prepared for this purpose are called resist pastes. F. C. Calvert.

resistnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A protective coating or covering.

resistverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To attempt to counter the actions or effects of. | To withstand the actions of. | To oppose; to refuse to accept. | To be distasteful to.

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