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To command or request to come or be present; to summon; as, to call a servant. Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain Shak.

The act of one who calls; a crying aloud, esp. in order to summon, or to attact the attention of, some one.

invitation to engage in a contest or controversy of any kind; a defiance; specifically, a summons to fight a duel; also, the letter or message conveying the summons. A challenge to controversy. Goldsmith.

To subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence; to affect by magic. No witchcraft charm thee! Shak.

Summoning to church. The sound of the churchgoing bell. Cowper.

Summons to appear, as before a judge. [R.] Johnson

An official summons or notice given to a person to appear; the paper containing such summons or notice.

To call upon officially or authoritatively to appear, as before a court; to summon. The cited dead, Of all past ages, to the general doom Shall hasten. Milton. Cited by finger of God. De Quincey.

One who is called upon to answer a summons or other proceeding jointly with another.

To call forth; to summon. [Obs.] Chapman. She had this knight from far compelled. Spenser.

The act of calling or summoning by a sacred name, or in solemn manner; the act of binding by an oath; an earnest entreaty; adjuration. We charge you, in the name of God, take heed; . . . Under this conjuration speak, my lord. Shak.

To call on or summon by a sacred name or in solemn manner; to implore earnestly; to adjure. I conjure you, let him know, Whate'er was done against him, Cato did it. Addison.

place of standing or staying together; hence, any solemn assembly or council. To council summons all his mighty peers, Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved, A gloomy consistory. Milton.

A willful contempt of, and disobedience to, any lawful summons, or to the rules and orders of court, as a refusal to appear in court when legally summoned.

To summon judicially to meet or appear. By the papal canon law, clerks . . . can not be convened before any but an ecclesiastical judge. Ayliffe.

To call before a judge or judicature; to summon; to convene. [Obs.] Shak.

The act of calling or assembling by summons.

To call together; to summon to meet; to assemble by summons. There remained no resource but the dreadful one of convoking a parliament. palfrey.

An assembly of men summoned or convened for consultation, deliberation, or advice; as, a council of physicians for consultation in a critical case.

of criers or messengers through the territory of a Scottish clan with an announcement or summons.