assize

American  

[uh-sahyz] / əˈsaɪz /

noun

1. Usually assizes a trial session, civil or criminal, held periodically in specific locations in England, usually by a judge of a superior court.

2. an edict, ordinance, or enactment made at a session of a legislative assembly.

3. an inquest before members of a jury or assessors; a judicial inquiry.

4. an action, writ, or verdict of an assize.

5. judgment.

   the last assize; the great assize.

6. a statute for the regulation and control of weights and measures or prices of general commodities in the market.

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assize British  

/ əˈsaɪz /

noun

1. 1. a sitting of a legislative assembly or administrative body

   2. an enactment or order of such an assembly

2. English history a trial or judicial inquest, the writ instituting such inquest, or the verdict

3. Scots law

   1. trial by jury

   2. another name for jury 1

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Etymology

Origin of assize

1250–1300; Middle English asise < Old French: a sitting, noun use of feminine of asis seated at (past participle of aseeir ), equivalent to a- a- ⁵ + -sis < Latin sēssum ( sed- stem of sedēre to sit ¹ + -tus past participle suffix)

Example Sentences

Divorce proceedings were fixed for 27 October 1936 at Ipswich assize court.

From The Guardian • Dec. 22, 2019

Last week an assize court jury in Kingston took only ten minutes to find Johnson not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

From Time Magazine Archive

This worthy Franklin bore a purse of silk Fix'd to his girdle, white as morning milk; Knight of the shire, first justice at th' assize, To help the poor, the doubtful to advise.

From Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 1 of 2] With His Most Interesting Essays, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings; Familiar, Moral, Political, Economical, and Philosophical by Franklin, Benjamin

During the discussion a singular remark was frequently heard, to the effect that those who shouted the loudest in this court of assize were the very ones who were least informed on the subject.

From Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Flammarion, Camille

If ignorance would look upon its own degradation, let it spend a few hours in an assize court.

From The History Of The Last Trial By Jury For Atheism In England A Fragment of Autobiography Submitted for the Perusal of Her Majesty's Attorney-General and the British Clergy by Holyoake, George Jacob