criminal offense of making false statements under oath

False swearing.

At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations.

The wilful breaking of an oath; the wilful giving, under oath, of false testimony.

False swearing: ( law) the act of willfully giving false evidence on an oath.

False swearing; act of breaking an oath.

The crime of false swearing; the crime of wilfully giving false evidence on oath.

The act or crime of giving false evidence in a court of justice when put on oath.

Not even to perceive that, in such a case, every conscience will model itself on the conscience at the summit, and that the perjury of the prince transmutes all oaths into counterfeit coin. – Napoleon the Little by Victor Hugo

The element of sacrilege in the alleged perjury of Harold probably affected the Pope when he blessed a banner for William's army; but it did not affect the Pope much more than it would have affected the people; and Harold's people quite as much as William's. – A Short History of England by G. K. Chesterton

But afterwards, it would seem, when things were in such a state as constrained them to govern with a stronger hand, he bade the Athenians to throw the perjury upon him, and manage affairs as convenience required. – Plutarch-Lives-of-the-noble-Grecians-and-Romans by Clough, Arthur Hugh

Lord George had talked to her of perjury and prison, and had tried to frighten her by making the very worst of her faults. – The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

Notwithstanding Mr. Jefferson's knowledge that Wilkinson was a Spanish pensioner, which fact Mr. Derbigny had stated to Secretary Gallatin in a letter, and subsequently swore to its truth; and notwithstanding his perjury before the grand jury, yet did the president sustain and countenance the general as a fit instrument for his purposes. – Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete by Matthew L. Davis

The house meanwhile applauded every sign of scruple, and protested against each case of perjury. – Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II by Caius Cornelius Tacitus

In direct defiance of both, because he wishes to make doubtful the orders of the Company and to evade his duty, he here makes without any delicacy a declaration, which if it be true, the affidavit is a gross perjury, let it be managed with what delicacy he pleases. – The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. XII. (of XII.) by Edmund Burke

" It's all the same to me," said Zopyrus, whether I die with or without an explanation, so long as I know I am innocent and have not deserved the punishment of perjury. – The Complete Historical Romances of Georg Ebers by Georg Ebers

Which you denied, tho I beheld your Perjury. – The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) by Aphra Behn

So home to dinner and to work again, and so till dinner, where W. Howe come and dined with me, and staid and read in my Lord Cooke upon his chapter of perjury again, which pleased me, and so parted, and I to my office, and there made an end of the books of Propositions, which did please me mightily to hear read, they being excellently writ and much to the purpose, and yet so as I think I shall make good use of his defence of our present constitution. – Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete Transcribed From The Shorthand Manuscript In The Pepysian Library Magdalene College Cambridge By The Rev. Mynors Bright by Samuel Pepys Commentator: Lord Braybrooke

And this lord was a lord of Parliament, and a government lord, and might probably have the power of hanging such a one as Andy Gowran were he to commit perjury, or say anything which the lord might choose to call perjury. – The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

He had managed with the help of subtle High Church divines to persuade himself that he could swear he assented to the Thirty- nine Articles without perjury. – The Altar Steps by Compton MacKenzie

When he sat down, the voice said again, " Have you, perhaps, committed perjury?" – Dame Care by Hermann Sudermann

They say they have once sworn to the doctrine of St. Thomas, and must therefore adhere to the Infallibilist doctrine introduced by him into the schools, to avoid perjury. – Letters From Rome on the Council by Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger

Fair- meaning Earth, foredoom'd to perjury! – The Unknown Eros by Coventry Patmore

The next day, he explained fully to his officers and soldiers what were the terms of the treaty, and impressed upon their minds that such a promise could not be violated without committing the sin of perjury. – The Freedmen's Book by Lydia Maria Child

The answer is, 'No; we do not ask you to lay perjury upon your souls; for as good a Spanish soul as is possessed by any of you declares, that you may now, in due conformity to your oaths, reconsider, and, where advisable, reform your Constitution. – Selected-Speeches-on-British-Foreign-Policy-1738-1914 by Jones, Edgar R. (Edgar Rees), Sir

I don't know anybody I could get to come forward and swear Fred was in their company that night- there is a difference between fixing up a tale for the police before a man's arrested, and going into the witness box and committing perjury on oath." – The Hampstead Mystery by John R. Watson