alibi

[In Lat. not a substantive, but an adverb = elsewhere, in another place.] Law : A plea that the person accused of having committed a crime, perpetrated, of course, at a certain place, could not po ibly have done what was laid to his charge, inasmuch as he was "elsewhere" at the time when the breach of the law occurred. If he substantiate this, he is said to prove an alibi . characteristically negligent in taking steps to verify the alibi which he had set up."- Daily Tele graph , 8th Oct., 1877.