Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRE-SENT'MENT, n. [s as z.]

1. The act of presenting. – Shak.
2. Appearance to the view; representation. – Milton.
3. In law, a presentment, properly speaking, is the notice taken by a grand jury of any offense from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them at the suit of the king; as, the presentment of a nuisance, a libel or the like, on which the officer of the court must afterward frame an indictment, before the party presented can be put to answer it. – Blackstone.
4. In a more general sense, presentment comprehends inquisitions of office and indictments. – Blackstone. In the United States, a presentment is an official accusation presented to a tribunal by the grand jury in an indictment; or it is the act of offering an indictment. It is also used for the indictment itself. The grand jury are charged to inquire and due presentment make of all crimes, &c. The use of the word is limited to accusations by grand jurors.
5. The official notice in court which the jury or homage gives of the surrender of a copyhold estate. – Blackstone.