Emily Dickinson Lexicon

REC'ORD, n.

1. A register; an authentic or official copy of any writing, or account of any facts and proceedings, entered in a book for preservation; or the book containing such copy or account; as, the records of statutes or of judicial courts; the records of a town or parish. Records are properly the registers of official transactions, made by officers appointed for the purpose, or by the officer whose proceedings are directed by law to be recorded.
2. Authentic memorial; as, the records of past ages. Court of record, is a court whose acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled on parchment or in books for a perpetual memorial; and their records are the highest evidence of facts, and their truth cannot be called in question. Debt of record, is a debt which appears to be due by the evidence of a court of record, as upon a judgment or recognizance. Blackstone. Trial by record, is where a matter of record is pleaded, and the opposite party pleads that there is no such record. In this case, the trial is by inspection of the record itself no other evidence being admissible. Blackstone.