A statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate; in the UK, used to inform a magistrate of an offence and request a warrant; in the US, an accusation brought before a judge without a grand jury indictment.
The act of informing against someone, passing on incriminating knowledge; accusation.
From Middle English informacion, enformacion, borrowed from Anglo-Norman informacioun, enformation, Old French information, from Latin īnfōrmātiō ("formation, conception; education"), from the participle stem of īnformāre. Compare West Frisian ynformaasje ("information"), Dutch informatie ("information"), German Information ("information"), Danish information ("information"), Swedish information ("information"), Norwegian informasjon ("information").