Definitions from Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition and Ballentine's Law Dictionary as are available for each term in each dictionary.
  • Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition

    One of the steps in the process of naturalizing an alien. It consists in a formal declaration. made by the party under oath before a competent authority, that he renounces and abjures all the allegiance and fidelity which he owes to the sovereign whose subject he has theretofore been.