assize
Americannoun
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Usually assizes a trial session, civil or criminal, held periodically in specific locations in England, usually by a judge of a superior court.
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an edict, ordinance, or enactment made at a session of a legislative assembly.
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an inquest before members of a jury or assessors; a judicial inquiry.
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an action, writ, or verdict of an assize.
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judgment.
the last assize; the great assize.
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a statute for the regulation and control of weights and measures or prices of general commodities in the market.
noun
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a sitting of a legislative assembly or administrative body
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an enactment or order of such an assembly
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English history a trial or judicial inquest, the writ instituting such inquest, or the verdict
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Scots law
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trial by jury
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another name for jury 1
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Etymology
Origin of assize
1250–1300; Middle English asise < Old French: a sitting, noun use of feminine of asis seated at (past participle of aseeir ), equivalent to a- a- 5 + -sis < Latin sēssum ( sed- stem of sedēre to sit 1 + -tus past participle suffix)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Divorce proceedings were fixed for 27 October 1936 at Ipswich assize court.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 22, 2019
Last week an assize court jury in Kingston took only ten minutes to find Johnson not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.
From Time Magazine Archive
The tenant is ejected however, and brings an assize of mort d'ancestor against Beatrice of Montacute, who, as holding in dower, vouches her son John to warranty.
From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Paul Vinogradoff
The villain fails in his assize and there has been no manumission, still it seems admitted that in this case the villain has acquired liberum tenementum by the lord's act.
From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Paul Vinogradoff
On the cases when an assize could be taken as to tenements in ancient demesne, see the opinion printed in Horwood's Introduction to Y.B.
From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Paul Vinogradoff
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
