in our customs, implies a thing devoted or consecrated to God, for the pacification of his wrath, in case of any misfortune; as a person's coming to a violent end, without the fault of any reasonable creature; as if a horse should strike his keeper, and so kill him. In this case, the horse is to be a deodand; that is, he is to be sold, and the price distributed to the poor, as an expiation of that dreadful event.