appeal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An earnest or urgent request, entreaty, or supplication.
2. n. A resort to a higher authority or greater power, as for sanction, corroboration, or a decision: an appeal to reason; an appeal to her listener's sympathy.
3. n. Law The transfer of a case from a lower to a higher court for a new hearing.
4. n. Law A case so transferred.
5. n. Law A request for a new hearing.
6. n. The power of attracting or of arousing interest: a city with special appeal for museumgoers.
7. v. To make an earnest or urgent request, as for help.
8. v. To have recourse, as for corroboration; resort: I appeal to your sense of justice.
9. v. Law To make or apply for an appeal.
10. v. To be attractive or interesting: The idea didn't appeal to me.
11. v. Law To transfer or apply to transfer (a case) to a higher court for rehearing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To call; summon; challenge.
2. In law: To remove, as a cause, from a lower to a higher judge or court. See appeal, n., 2 .
3. Formerly, to charge with a crime before a tribunal; accuse; institute a criminal prosecution against for some heinous offense: with of before the offense charged: as, to appeal a person of felony.
4. . To address; offer up, as an appeal.
5. To call for aid, mercy, sympathy, or the like; make an earnest ontreaty, or have the effect of an entreaty.
6. In law, to refer to a superior judge or court for the decision of a cause depending; specifically, to refer a decision of a lower court or judge to a higher one, for reëxamination and revisal.
7. To refer to another person or authority for the decision of a question controverted, or for the corroboration of testimony or facts; in general, to refer to some tribunal explicitly mentioned or implied.
8. To have recourse; resort for proof, decision, or settlement: as, to appeal to force.
9. [In all senses, with to or unto before the tribunal whose judgment is asked, and from before that whose decision is rejected.]
10. n. An address or invocation; a call for sympathy, mercy, aid, or the like; a supplication; an entreaty: as, an appeal for help; an appeal for mercy.
11. n. A proceeding taken to reverse a decision by submitting it to the review of a higher authority: as, an appeal to the house from a decision of the chair. In law:
12. n. Sometimes used in the above general meaning, so as to include writs of error, certiorari, etc.
13. n. Strictly, the removal of a cause or suit from a lower to a higher tribunal, in order that the latter may revise, and, if it seems needful, reverse or amend, the decision of the former. In modern usage an appeal implies not merely a preliminary objection, but a proceeding for review after a decision has been rendered. As now used, it is a proceeding derived from the courts of equity. The mode of review at common law was formerly not to remove the cause, but only to bring up specific points or questions by writs of error. This was changed in England by the judicature acts of 1873–5, and there is now one Court of Appeal for all cases. In Scotland the highest appellate court is the Court of Session. The judgments of both these courts may be appealed to the House of Lords. In the United States the appeal has been to a great extent substituted for the writ of error. The highest appellate courts are, for federal questions arising in either federal or State courts, the United States Supreme Court; for other questions, the supreme courts, courts of appeal, or courts of error of the various States, the practice being wholly regulated by statutes.
14. n. The mode of procedure by which such removal is effected.
15. n. The right of removal to a higher court.
16. n. Formerly, a vindictive action at the suit of a party injured when the supposed criminal had been previously acquitted on an indictment or pardoned. The appellant raised an action (which had to be brought within a year) and demanded the punishment of the accused, who had to submit to a fresh trial by jury, or demand a trial by wager of battle.
17. n. A summons to answer to a charge; a challenge.
18. n. A call to another to sanction or witness; a reference to another for proof or decision: as, in an oath a person makes an appeal to the Deity for the truth of his declaration.
19. n. Resort or recourse for decision.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive, obsolete To accuse (someone of something).
2. v. transitive, law To apply for the removal of a cause from an inferior to a superior judge or court for the purpose of reexamination of for decision. --Tomlins. WP
3. v. transitive To call upon another to decide a question controverted, to corroborate a statement, to vindicate one's rights, etc.; as, I appeal to all mankind for the truth of what is alleged. Hence: To call on one for aid; to make earnest request.
4. v. intransitive To be attractive; as, that idea appeals to me means "I find the idea attractive".
5. v. intransitive, cricket To ask an umpire for a decision of whether a batsman is out or not
6. n. law (a) An application for the removal of a cause or suit from an inferior to a superior judge or court for reëxamination or review. (b) The mode of proceeding by which such removal is effected. (c) The right of appeal. (d) An accusation; a process which formerly might be instituted by one private person against another for some heinous crime demanding punishment for the particular injury suffered, rather than for the offense against the public. (e) An accusation of a felon at common law by one of his accomplices, which accomplice was then called an approver. --Tomlins. --Bouvier.
7. n. A summons to answer to a charge. --John Dryden.
8. n. A call upon a person or an authority for proof or decision, in one's favor; reference to another as witness; a call for help or a favor; entreaty.
9. n. Resort to physical means; recourse.
10. n. The power to attract or interest
11. n. cricket : the act, by the fielding side, of asking an umpire for a decision of whether a batsman is out or not.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make application for the removal of (a cause) from an inferior to a superior judge or court for a rehearing or review on account of alleged injustice or illegality in the trial below. We say, the cause was appealed from an inferior court.
2. v. To charge with a crime; to accuse; to institute a private criminal prosecution against for some heinous crime.
3. v. Archaic To summon; to challenge.
4. v. obsolete To invoke.
5. v. (Law) To apply for the removal of a cause from an inferior to a superior judge or court for the purpose of reëxamination of for decision.
6. v. To call upon another to decide a question controverted, to corroborate a statement, to vindicate one's rights, etc.. Hence: To call on one for aid; to make earnest request.
7. n. An application for the removal of a cause or suit from an inferior to a superior judge or court for reëxamination or review.
8. n. The mode of proceeding by which such removal is effected.
9. n. The right of appeal.
10. n. An accusation; a process which formerly might be instituted by one private person against another for some heinous crime demanding punishment for the particular injury suffered, rather than for the offense against the public.
11. n. An accusation of a felon at common law by one of his accomplices, which accomplice was then called an approver. See approvement.
12. n. A summons to answer to a charge.
13. n. A call upon a person or an authority for proof or decision, in one's favor; reference to another as witness; a call for help or a favor; entreaty.
14. n. Resort to physical means; recourse.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. cite as an authority; resort to
2. n. attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates
3. v. take a court case to a higher court for review
4. n. request for a sum of money
5. n. earnest or urgent request
6. v. challenge (a decision)
7. v. be attractive to
8. n. (law) a legal proceeding in which the appellant resorts to a higher court for the purpose of obtaining a review of a lower court decision and a reversal of the lower court's judgment or the granting of a new trial
9. v. request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection