prevailing party
1
7.2
- noun
- /prɪˈveɪlɪŋ ˈpɑrti/
- Formal
:
parte vencedora
- If a town fails to pay, is the prevailing party entitled to garnish city property?
- prevailing party, the plaintiff
Examples
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Once the arbitrators issue an award, the prevailing party will seek to enforce the award by submitting it to a court and requesting entry of a judgment.
Academic text (2007) -
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d), courts can award costs to the prevailing party unless a federal statute provides otherwise.
Blog text (14) -
In May, Schuchmann, as the prevailing party in the civil suit, filed an Equal Access to Justice Act claim against the FDIC seeking $920,000 for his legal expenses.
Academic text (1999) -
But the majority ruling by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said that to qualify as a prevailing party, the plaintiff must win a judgment or obtain the court's stamp of approval on a settlement.
Academic text (2003) -
The judge awarded damages to the prevailing party after reviewing the evidence.
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Under the new regulations, the prevailing party is entitled to full legal costs.
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In the lawsuit, the prevailing party successfully argued their case, leading to a favorable judgment.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'party' (a litigant) and 'prevailing' can be interpreted compositionally as 'the party that prevails/wins', so there is a clear semantic link. However, 'prevailing' also commonly means 'most widespread' and the specific legal collocation 'prevailing party' is conventional and domain‑specific, so a B1 learner who only knows the general senses may not reliably infer the legal meaning without exposure.
Etymology
The legal term prevailing party comes from a simple image: prevailing means being stronger or winning, and party means the person or side in a case. That's why the prevailing party is the side that 'wins' the case and often gets 'legal costs'.