assize

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A session of a court.
2. n. A decree or edict rendered at such a session.
3. n. An ordinance regulating weights and measures and the weights and prices of articles of consumption.
4. n. The standards so established.
5. n. Law A judicial inquest, the writ by which it is instituted, or the verdict of the jurors.
6. n. One of the periodic court sessions formerly held in each of the counties of England and Wales for the trial of civil or criminal cases.
7. n. The time or place of such sessions.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Originally, a sitting or session of a legislative body or court.
2. n. Hence An edict, ordinance, or enactment made at such a session or sitting, or issued by such a body. Specifically, in English history: An ordinance fixing the weight, measure, and price of articles of general consumption sold in market: as, the assize of measures in the reign of Henry II., and the assize of bread and ale (51 Hen. III.).
3. n. A jury, or trial by jury: now used only in Scotland with reference to criminal causes. See grand assize, below.
4. n. A name given to certain writs commanding juries to be summoned for the trial of causes: as, assize of novel disseizin, the ancient common-law remedy for the recovery of the possession of lands.
5. n. The verdict of a jury in such a case.
6. n. The periodical session held by royal commission by at least one of the judges of the superior courts directed to take the assizes or verdicts of a particular jury (anciently called the assize), in each of the counties of England and Wales (with the exception of London and the parts adjoining), for the purpose of trying issues nisi prius and jail-delivery for criminal cases: popularly called the assizes. [This is the only sense in which the word is now used in law.] The commission by which assizes are held is either general or special. A general commission is issued twice a year to the judges of the High Court of Justice, two judges being usually assigned to each circuit. A special commission is granted to certain judges to try certain causes and crimes.
7. n. In a more general sense, any court or session of a court of justice.
8. n. Situation; place.
9. n. Judgment: as, the last or great assize (that is, the last judgment or last day).
10. n. Sometimes spelled assise.
11. In a general sense, to fix; appoint.
12. To fix the rate of; assess, as taxes.
13. To fix the weight, measure, or price of, by an ordinance or authoritative regulation.
14. n. In geological classification, the French equivalent of the term bed, constituting one of the minor subdivisions in geology. An assize, or bed, is composed of two or more zones; two or more assizes, or beds, constitute a group, stage, or étage.

Wiktionary

1. n. A session or inquiry made before a court or jury.
2. n. The verdict reached or pronouncement given by a panel of jurors.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete 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.
2. n. A special kind of jury or inquest.
3. n. A kind of writ or real action.
4. n. A verdict or finding of a jury upon such writ.
5. n. 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; ; (2) A statute fixing the standard of weights and measures.
6. n. Anything fixed or reduced to a certainty in point of time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, etc..
7. n. A court, the sitting or session of a court, for the trial of processes, whether civil or criminal, by a judge and jury.
8. n. 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.
9. n. The time or place of holding the court of assize; -- generally in the plural, assizes.
10. n. Measure; dimension; size.
11. v. obsolete To assess; to value; to rate.
12. v. obsolete To fix the weight, measure, or price of, by an ordinance or regulation of authority.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the regulation of weights and measures of articles offered for sale
2. n. an ancient writ issued by a court of assize to the sheriff for the recovery of property