1. Any loss or harm suffered by a person or property.
2. Contracts. The relinquishment of some legal right that a promisee would have otherwise been entitled to exercise.
— Also termed legal detriment. Cf. BENEFIT(2).
“A promise or an act may be a detriment although on balance the promisor is making a good bargain. Thus a promise to pay £10,000 for a Rolls Royce worth £12,000, is none the less a detriment, and a good consideration for a promise to deliver the car.” P.S. Atiyah, An Introduction to the Law of Contract 101 (3d ed. 1981).
detriment to a promisee. Contracts. Consideration offered by a promisee to a promisor, esp. in a unilateral contract. [Cases: Contracts 52. C.J.S. Contracts § 90.]
