assize

American  

[uh-sahyz] / əˈsaɪz /

noun

1. Usually assizes a trial session, civil or criminal, held periodically in specific locations in England, usually by a judge of a superior court.

2. an edict, ordinance, or enactment made at a session of a legislative assembly.

3. an inquest before members of a jury or assessors; a judicial inquiry.

4. an action, writ, or verdict of an assize.

5. judgment.

   the last assize; the great assize.

6. a statute for the regulation and control of weights and measures or prices of general commodities in the market.

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assize British  

/ əˈsaɪz /

noun

1. 1. a sitting of a legislative assembly or administrative body

   2. an enactment or order of such an assembly

2. English history a trial or judicial inquest, the writ instituting such inquest, or the verdict

3. Scots law

   1. trial by jury

   2. 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

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

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 Vinogradoff, Paul

The reply of Wedderburn was pointed and brilliant, and as rabid as if he had been summing up against an ordinary criminal at an ordinary assize.

From Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Bruce, Wiliam Cabell

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 Vinogradoff, Paul