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assise


assise

 

  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Assize  \As*size"\,  n.  [OE.  assise,  asise,  OF  assise,  F. 
  assises  assembly  of  judges,  the  decree  pronounced  by  them 
  tax,  impost,  fr  assis,  assise,  p.  p.  of  asseoir  fr  L. 
  assid?re  to  sit  by  ad  +  sed[=e]re  to  sit  See  {Sit},  {Size}, 
  and  cf  {Excise},  {Assess}.] 
  1.  An  assembly  of  knights  and  other  substantial  men,  with  a 
  bailiff  or  justice,  in  a  certain  place  and  at  a  certain 
  time,  for  public  business.  [Obs.] 
 
  2.  (Law) 
  a  A  special  kind  of  jury  or  inquest. 
  b  A  kind  of  writ  or  real  action 
  c  A  verdict  or  finding  of  a  jury  upon  such  writ. 
  d  A  statute  or  ordinance  in  general.  Specifically:  (1)  A 
  statute  regulating  the  weight,  measure,  and 
  proportions  of  ingredients  and  the  price  of  articles 
  sold  in  the  market;  as  the  assize  of  bread  and  other 
  provisions;  (2)  A  statute  fixing  the  standard  of 
  weights  and  measures. 
  e  Anything  fixed  or  reduced  to  a  certainty  in  point  of 
  time,  number,  quantity,  quality,  weight,  measure, 
  etc.;  as  rent  of  assize.  --Glanvill.  --Spelman. 
  --Cowell.  --Blackstone.  --Tomlins.  --Burrill. 
 
  Note:  [This  term  is  not  now  used  in  England  in  the  sense  of  a 
  writ  or  real  action  and  seldom  of  a  jury  of  any  kind 
  but  in  Scotch  practice  it  is  still  technically  applied 
  to  the  jury  in  criminal  cases.  --Stephen.  --Burrill. 
  --Erskine.] 
  f  A  court,  the  sitting  or  session  of  a  court,  for  the 
  trial  of  processes,  whether  civil  or  criminal,  by  a 
  judge  and  jury.  --Blackstone.  --Wharton.  --Encyc. 
  Brit. 
  g  The  periodical  sessions  of  the  judges  of  the  superior 
  courts  in  every  county  of  England  for  the  purpose  of 
  administering  justice  in  the  trial  and  determination 
  of  civil  and  criminal  cases;  --  usually  in  the  plural. 
  --Brande.  --Wharton.  --Craig.  --Burrill. 
  h  The  time  or  place  of  holding  the  court  of  assize;  -- 
  generally  in  the  plural,  assizes. 
 
  3.  Measure;  dimension;  size.  [In  this  sense  now  corrupted 
  into  {size}.] 
 
  An  hundred  cubits  high  by  just  assize.  --Spenser. 
  [Formerly  written,  as  in  French,  {assise}.]