solicitor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that solicits, especially one that seeks trade or contributions.
2. n. The chief law officer of a city, town, or government department.
3. n. Chiefly British An attorney who advises clients on legal matters, represents clients in certain lower courts, and prepares cases for barristers to present in the higher courts.
4. n. Canadian A barrister and solicitor.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A tempter; an instigator.
2. n. One who solicits; one who asks with earnestness.
3. n. An advocate; specifically, one who represents a party in a court of justice, particularly a court of equity. Generally, in the United States, wherever the distinction between courts of law and of equity remains, practitioners in the latter are termed solicitors. In England solicitors are officers of the supreme court, and the medium between barristers and the general public; they prepare causes for the barrister, and have a right of audience as advocates before magistrates at petty sessions, at quarter-sessions where there is no bar, in county courts, and in the bankruptcy courts but they cannot appear as advocates in any of the superior courts, or at assizes, or at any court of commission. Solicitors were at one time officers only of the court of chancery, but the term is now applied to all attorneys. In Scotland solicitors are of two classes—solicitors in the supreme court, who occupy a position similar to that of solicitors in England; and solicitors at law, who are members of a society of law-agents at Edinburgh, incorporated by royal charter and entitled to practise before inferior courts; they are also known by the name of procurators. Law-agents of both kinds in Scotland are now on an equal footing. Slater.

Wiktionary

1. n. In many common law jurisdictions, a type of lawyer whose traditional role is to offer legal services to clients apart from acting as their advocate in court. A solicitor instructs a barrister to act as an advocate for their client in court, although rights of audience for solicitors vary according to jurisdiction.
2. n. In English Canada and in parts of Australia, a type of lawyer who historically held the same role as above, but whose role has in modern times been merged with that of a barrister.
3. n. In parts of the U.S., the chief legal officer of a city, town or other jurisdiction.
4. n. North America A person soliciting sales, especially door to door.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who solicits.
2. n. An attorney or advocate; one who represents another in court; -- formerly, in English practice, the professional designation of a person admitted to practice in a court of chancery or equity. See the Note under Attorney.
3. n. The law officer of a city, town, department, or government

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a petitioner who solicits contributions or trade or votes
2. n. a British lawyer who gives legal advice and prepares legal documents