Search the Dictionary

The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere. Hook.

A council or conference, as of physicians, held to consider a special case, or of lawyers restained in a cause. Writ of consultation (Law), a writ by which a cause, improperly removed by prohibition from one court to another, is returned to the court from which it came; -- so called because the judges, on consultation,…

ty; complete; perfect. "A man of perfect and consummate virtue." Addison. The little band held the post with consummate tenacity. Motley

That which is held together with another thing; that which is connected with a tenetment, or thing holden, as a certin quantity of land a Burrill.

That which is contained; the thing or things held by a receptacle or included within specified limits; as, the contents of a cask or bale or of a room; the contents of a book. I shall prove these writings . . . authentic, and the contents true, and worthy of a divine original. Grew.

An assembly for religious worship; esp., such an assembly held privately, as in times of persecution, by Nonconformists or Dissenters in England, or by Covenanters in Scotland; -- often used opprobriously, as if those assembled were heretics or schismatics. The first Christians could never have had recourse to nocturna…

An extraordinary assembly of the parkiament or estates of the realm, held without the king's writ, -- as the assembly which restored Charles II. to the throne, and that which declared the throne to be abdicated by James II. Our gratitude is due . . . to the Long Parliament, to the Convention, and to William of Orange.…

or illegally. When a bystander took a coin to get it changed, and converted it, [it was] held no larceny. Cooley.

Land held in copyhold. Milton.

Fig.: Any moral influence by which persons are caught, held, or drawn, as if by a cord; an enticement; as, the cords of the wicked; the cords of sin; the cords of vanity. The knots that tangle human creeds, The wounding cords that bind and strain The heart until it bleeds. Tennyson.

Land appendant to a cot or cottage, or held by a cottager or cotter.

n land, not belonging to their owner, to lie down and rise up to feed, -- such time being held to include a day and night at the least. Blackstone.

A reception held at the time of going to bed, as by a sovereign or great prince. [Obs.] Dryden. The duke's levees and couchees were so crowded that the antechambers were full. Bp. Burnet.

wn. [U.S.] -- County sessions, the general quarter sessions of the peace for each county, held four times a year. [Eng.] -- County town, the town of a county, where the county business is transacted; a shire town.

Any formal assembling of the retinue of a sovereign; as, to hold a court. The princesses held their court within the fortres. Macualay.

An inferior court of civil jurisdiction, attached to a manor, and held by the steward; a baron's court; -- now fallen into disuse.

A court of record held once a year, in a particular hundred, lordship, or manor, before the steward of the leet. Blackstone.

A house in which established courts are held, or a house appropriated to courts and public meetings. [U.S.]

Since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations, Has the craft of the smith been held in repute. Longfellow.

One who rents and tills a small farm or helding; as, the crofters of Scotland.