parliament

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A national representative body having supreme legislative powers within the state.
2. n. The national legislature of various countries, especially that of the United Kingdom, made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A conference or consultation.
2. n. A meeting or assembly for conference or deliberation; especially, an assembly of the people or their representatives to deliberate or legislate on national affairs. The word is nearly confined to the legislative bodies of Great Britain and its colonies. Sometimes it is used with reference to other countries, as the German Parliament of 1848, the Italian Parliament: usually the word diet or the native name is preferred, as the Hungarian Diet, the German Reichstag, the Norwegian Storthing, etc.
3. n. Specifically [capitalized] The supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, consisting of the three estates of the realm, namely the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, and the commons; the general council of the nation, constituting the legislature, summoned by the sovereign's authority to consult on the affairs of the nation and to enact and repeal laws. Primarily, the sovereign may be considered as a constituent element of Parliament; but the word as generally used has exclusive reference to the three estates above named, ranged in two distinct branches, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords includes the lords spiritual and lords temporal. (See House of Lords, under lord.) The House of Commons consists of 670 members: viz., for England and Wales, 253 representatives of county constituencies (counties or divisions of counties), 237 of boroughs, and 5 of universities; for Scotland, 39 representatives of counties, 31 of burghs, and 2 of universities; for Ireland, 85 representatives of counties, 16 of boroughs, and 2 of a university. The authority of Parliament extends over the United Kingdom and all its colonies and foreign possessions. The duration of a Parliament was fixed by the Septennial Act of 1716 at seven years, but it seldom even approaches its limit. Sessions are held annually, usually from about the middle of February to the end of August, and are closed by prorogation. Government is administered by the ministry (see ministry and cabinet), which is sustained by a majority in the House of Commons, should the ministry be outvoted in the house on a question of vital importance, it either resigns office or dissolves Parliament and appeals to the country. The precursors of the Parliament were the Witenagemot in the Anglo-Saxon period and the National Council in the Norman and Angevin periods. The composition and powers of Parliament were developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; the right of representation from shires and towns dates from 1295, and the separation of the two houses dates from the middle of the fourteenth century. Parliamentary government was in large measure suspended from 1461 to the middle of the reign of Henry VIII. Prolonged struggles between the Parliament and the crown took place under James I. and Charles I., which led to the Civil War and the Commonwealth. The Triennial Act of 1694 (modified by the Septennial Act of 1716) fixed the life of Parliament at three years, and government by party dates from the same period. The right of election to Parliament has been greatly modified by the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884, and the Redistribution Act of 1885.
4. n. [capitalized] One of similar legislative bodies constituting the legislatures of the Dominion of Canada, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, and other self-governing colonies of the British empire. The Parliament of the Dominion of Canada, established by royal proclamation in 1867, consists of two houses—a Senate, or upper house, whose members, 80 in number, are nominated for life by the governor-general, and a House of Commons, whose members are elected for five years by the people of the different provinces, there being one representative for every 20,000 of the population. In the other colonies the two houses are usually styled the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. The members of the latter body are elected; the members of the former body may be elected, as in Tasmania, or nominated by the crown, as in New South Wales.
5. n. In France, before the revolution of 1789, one of several courts, including various provincial parliaments, and especially the Parliament of Paris (see below).
6. n. In law, an assembly of the members of the two Temples (Inner and Middle) to consult upon the affairs of the society.
7. n. [Short for parliament-cake.] Same as parliament-cake
8. To busy one's self with parliamentary matters; attend to one's duties as member of Parliament.

Wiktionary

1. n. An institution whose elected or appointed members meet to debate the major political issues of the day and usually to exercise legislative powers and sometimes judicial powers.
2. n. A collective noun for a flock of owls or rooks.
3. n. historical Parliament cake; a type of gingerbread.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A parleying; a discussion; a conference.
2. n. A formal conference on public affairs; a general council an assembly of representatives of a nation or people having authority to make laws.
3. n. The assembly of the three estates of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, viz., the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and the representatives of the commons, sitting in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, constituting the legislature, when summoned by the royal authority to consult on the affairs of the nation, and to enact and repeal laws.
4. n. In France, before the Revolution of 1789, one of the several principal judicial courts.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a legislative assembly in certain countries
2. n. a card game in which you play your sevens and other cards in sequence in the same suit as the sevens; you win if you are the first to use all your cards