convention

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A formal meeting of members, representatives, or delegates, as of a political party, fraternal society, profession, or industry.
2. n. The body of persons attending such an assembly: called the convention to order.
3. n. An agreement between states, sides, or military forces, especially an international agreement dealing with a specific subject, such as the treatment of prisoners of war.
4. n. General agreement on or acceptance of certain practices or attitudes: By convention, north is at the top of most maps.
5. n. A practice or procedure widely observed in a group, especially to facilitate social interaction; a custom: the convention of shaking hands.
6. n. A widely used and accepted device or technique, as in drama, literature, or painting: the theatrical convention of the aside.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of coming together; coalition; union.
2. n. A gathering of persons; a meeting; an assembly.
3. n. Specifically A formal, recognized, or statutory meeting or assembly of men for civil or religious purposes; particularly, an assembly of delegates or representatives for consultation on important concerns, civil, political, or religious. In the United States, in particular: A body of delegates convened for the formation or revision of a constitution of government, as of a State: called a constitutional convention(which see, under constitutional). A meeting of delegates of a political party, to nominate candidates for national, State, or local offices, and to formulate its principles of action. State nominating conventions arose about 1825, superseding legislative caucuses. The first national convention to select presidential candidates was held by the Antimasonic party in Baltimore in September, 1831, and all presidential nominations have since been made by such conventions. A meeting of representatives of a national, State, or other general association, or of a number of persons having a common interest, for the promotion of any common object. The triennial assembly of the Protestant Episcopal Church, called the General Convention, consisting of the House of Bishops and the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies; also, the annual assembly of each diocese, called a diocesan convention. [capitalized] In French history, the sovereign assembly, called specifically the National Convention, which sat from September 21st, 1792, to October 26th, 1795, and governed France after abolishing royalty. In Great Britain, an extraordinary assembly of the estates of the realm, held without the king's writ, as the assembly which restored Charles II. to the throne (also known as the Convention Parliament or Free Parliament) and that which declared the throne to have been abdicated by James II. In the University of Cambridge, England, a clerical court consisting of the master and fellows of a college sitting in the combination room to pass judgment on offenders against the laws of soberness and chastity.
4. n. An agreement or contract between two parties; specifically, in diplomacy an agreement or arrangement previous to a definitive treaty. A military convention is a treaty made between the commanders of two opposing armies concerning the terms on which a temporary cessation of hostilities shall take place between them.
5. n. General agreement; tacit understanding; common consent, as the foundation of a custom, an institution, or the like.
6. n. A customary rule, regulation, or requirement, or such rules collectively; something more or less arbitrarily established, or required by common consent or opinion; a conventionality; a precedent.
7. n. In civil law: In general, the agreement of several persons, who by a common act of the will determine their legal relations, for the purpose either of creating an obligation or of extinguishing one. in a narrower sense, the agreement of several persons in one and the same act of will resulting in an obligation between them.—
8. n. In the fine arts, a generalization of nature which expresses certain phases of the actual and suppresses others, according to custom or tradition.
9. n. In card-playing, a play adopted for convenience: as, in bridge, leading a heart when the pone doubles a no-trumper, or scoring spades without playing when the make is not doubled and the score is not 20 or better.

Wiktionary

1. n. A meeting or gathering.
2. n. A formal deliberative assembly of mandated delegates
3. n. The convening of a formal meeting
4. n. A formal agreement, contract or pact
5. n. international law A treaty or supplement to such.
6. n. A generally accepted principle, method or behaviour.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of coming together; the state of being together; union; coalition.
2. n. General agreement or concurrence; arbitrary custom; usage; conventionality.
3. n. A meeting or an assembly of persons, esp. of delegates or representatives, to accomplish some specific object, -- civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical.
4. n. (Eng. Hist) An extraordinary assembly of the parkiament or estates of the realm, held without the king's writ, -- as the assembly which restored Charles II. to the throne, and that which declared the throne to be abdicated by James II.
5. n. An agreement or contract less formal than, or preliminary to, a treaty; an informal compact, as between commanders of armies in respect to suspension of hostilities, or between states; also, a formal agreement between governments or sovereign powers.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (diplomacy) an international agreement
2. n. something regarded as a normative example
3. n. a large formal assembly
4. n. orthodoxy as a consequence of being conventional
5. n. the act of convening