Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Parliament

Par′lia·ment (pär′lĭ·ment), n. [OE. parlement, F. parlement, fr. parler to speak; cf. LL. parlamentum, parliamentum. See Parley.] 1. A parleying; a discussion; a conference. [Obs.]

But first they held their parliament. Rom. of R.

2. A formal conference on public affairs; a general council; esp., an assembly of representatives of a nation or people having authority to make laws.

They made request that it might be lawful for them to summon a parliament of Gauls. Golding.

3. 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.

☞ Thought the sovereign is a constituting branch of Parliament, the word is generally used to denote the three estates named above.

4. In France, before the Revolution of 1789, one of the several principal judicial courts.

Parliament heel, the inclination of a ship when made to careen by shifting her cargo or ballast. — Parliament hinge (Arch.), a hinge with so great a projection from the wall or frame as to allow a door or shutter to swing back flat against the wall. — Long Parliament, Rump Parliament. See under Long, and Rump.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.