noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A secondary lawsuit, brought by a defendant in an original lawsuit, against a co-defendant in the original suit.

Verb

1. 1
   To file such a secondary lawsuit. intransitive, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

cross-complaint

Etymology

From cross- + claim.

Related phrases

co defendantthird party claim

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.