the act of informing, or communicating knowledge or intelligence.-news, advice, or knowledge, communicated by others or obtained by personal study and investigation; intelligence; knowledge derived from reading, observation, or instruction.-a proceeding in the nature of a prosecution for some offens against the government, instituted and prosecuted, really or nominally, by some authorized public officer on behalt of the government. it differs from an indictment in criminal cases chiefly in not being based on the finding of a grand juri. see indictment.