Cōm’pur-gā’tion, n.

n. [Lat. compurgare, to purify wholly, from com and purgare, contr. from purum agere, to make pure.] (Law.) The act or practice of justifying or confirming a man’s veracity by the oath of others; wager of law, in which a man, who had given security to make his law, brought into court eleven of his neighbors, and having made oath himself that he did not owe the plaintiff, the eleven neighbors, called compurgators, avowed on their oaths that they believed in their consciences he had affirmed the truth. Blackstone.

This proceeding was abolished in the reign of William IV.