Fact \Fact\, n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf. Feat, Affair, Benefit, Defect, Fashion, and -fy.]

1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]

A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies. --B. Jonson.

2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.

What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture. --Evelyn.

He who most excels in fact of arms. --Milton.

3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.

4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds with false facts.

I do not grant the fact. --De Foe.

This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true. --Roger Long.

Note: TheTerm fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with low; as, attorney at low, and attorney in fact; issue in low, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between low and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the low. --Burrill Bouvier.

Accessary before, or after, the fact. See under Accessary.

Matter of fact, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.

Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)