Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Session

Ses′sion, n. [L. sessio, fr. sedere, sessum, to sit: cf. F. session. See Sit.] 1. The act of sitting, or the state of being seated. [Archaic]

So much his ascension into heaven and his session at the right hand of God do import. Hooker.

But Viven, gathering somewhat of his mood, . . . Leaped from her session on his lap, and stood. Tennyson.

2. The actual sitting of a court, council, legislature, etc., or the actual assembly of the members of such a body, for the transaction of business.

It's fit this royal session do proceed. Shak.

3. Hence, also, the time, period, or term during which a court, council, legislature, etc., meets daily for business; or, the space of time between the first meeting and the prorogation or adjournment; thus, a session of Parliaments is opened with a speech from the throne, and closed by prorogation. The session of a judicial court is called a term.

It was resolved that the convocation should meet at the beginning of the next session of Parliament. Macaulay.

☞ Sessions, in some of the States, is particularly used as a title for a court of justices, held for granting licenses to innkeepers, etc., and for laying out highways, and the like; it is also the title of several courts of criminal jurisdiction in England and the United States.

Church session, the lowest court in the Presbyterian Church, composed of the pastor and a body of elders elected by the members of a particular church, and having the care of matters pertaining to the religious interests of that church, as the admission and dismission of members, discipline, etc. — Court of Session, the supreme civil court of Scotland. — Quarter sessions. (Eng.Law) See under Quarter. — Sessions of the peace, sittings held by justices of the peace. [Eng.]

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 “?”.