\Fact\, n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf.
{Feat}, {Affair}, {Benefit}, {Defect}, {Fashion}, and {-fy}.]
1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]
         A project for the fact and vending Of a new kind of
         fucus, paint for ladies.              --B. Jonson.
2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that
   comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
         What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am
         not able to conjecture.               --Evelyn.
         He who most excels in fact of arms.   --Milton.
3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all
   the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.
4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing;
   sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer
   of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a
   thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds
   with false facts.
         I do not grant the fact.              --De Foe.
         This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not
         true.                                 --Roger Long.
Note: TheTerm fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in
      contrast with low; as, attorney at low, and attorney in
      fact; issue in low, and issue in fact. There is also a
      grand distinction between low and fact with reference
      to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the
      latter generally determining the fact, the former the
      low. --Burrill Bouvier.
{Accessary before}, or {after}, {the fact}. See under
   {Accessary}.
{Matter of fact}, an actual occurrence; a verity; used
   adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic;
   unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.
Syn: Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence;
     circumstance.