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The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion. Dantiel. And, pregnant with his grander thought, Brought the old order into doubt. Emerson.

A scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project; as, the plan of a constitution; the plan of an expedition. God's plans like lines pure and white unfold. M. R. Smith.

Decisive procedure. [Obs.]

The course of procedure in the prosecution of an action at law. Blackstone. Proceedings of a society, the published record of its action, or of things done at its meetings.

The act of proceeding; continued forward movement; procedure; progress; advance. "Long process of time." Milton. The thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. Tennyson.

Remission or suspension of business or procedure; intermission, as of a legislative body, court, or school. The recess of . . . Parliament lasted six weeks. Macaulay.

Any regular course of action or procedure rigidly adhered to by the mere force of habit.

Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct. [Obs.] To ruffle it out in a riotous ruff. Latimer.

Ordibary course of procedure; usual way; comon state or condition of things; as, it is a rule to which there are many exeptions.

The bringing to pass anything in a secret or concealed manner; a secret procedure; a clandestine practice or action; -- in either a good or a bad sense. Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. Pope. The monarch, blinded with desire of wealth, With steel invades the brother's life by stealth. Dryden. I told him o…

gent rules. They must be subject to a sharper penal code, and to a more stringent code of procedure. Macaulay. -- Strin"gent*ly, adv. -- Strin"gent*ness, n.

Hence, any system or method of procedure.

An artifice or stratagem; a cunning contrivance; a sly procedure, usually with a dishonest intent; as, a trick in trade. tricks of the trade mean simply specialized knowledge, in a good or neutral sense. He comes to me for counsel, and I show him a trick. South. I know a trick worth two of that. Shak.…

Long-continued practice; customary mode of procedure; custom; habitual use; method. Chaucer. It has now been, during many years, the grave and decorous usage of Parliaments to hear, in respectful silence, all expressions, acceptable or unacceptable, which are uttered from the throne. Macaulay.

Intermission of a stated employment, procedure, or office; a period of intermission; rest; leisure. It was not in his nature, however, at least till years had chastened it, to take any vacation from controversy. Palfrey. Hence, specifically: -(a) (Law)

the vices of a horse. Withouten vice of syllable or letter. Chaucer. Mark the vice of the procedure. Sir W. Hamilton.

A violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening. [Obs.] When the church Was taken with a why-not in the lurch. Hudibras. This game . . . was like to have been lost with a why-not. Nugæ Antiq.