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
In 1799, an assize of bread was constituted, which was intended to prevent bakers from taking undue advantage of the public.
From Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume I (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Anonymous
The plaintiff replies that he was enfranchised by being suffered to plead in an assize of mort d'ancestor against B.P.'s grandmother.
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
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.
