ASSIZES

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does assizes mean? 

• ASSIZES (noun)
  The noun ASSIZES has 1 sense:

1. the county courts of England (replaced in 1971 by Crown courts)

  Familiarity information: ASSIZES used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASSIZES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The county courts of England (replaced in 1971 by Crown courts)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

assizes; court of assize; court of assize and nisi prius

Hypernyms ("assizes" is a kind of...):

court; judicature; tribunal (an assembly (including one or more judges) to conduct judicial business)

 Context examples 

The season of the assizes approached.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Whether he could rush to the next assizes, and proclaim himself a lawyer?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He spoke to him as before, over his shoulder and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: If you do not put that knife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at the next assizes.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The American, Abe Slaney, was condemned to death at the winter assizes at Norwich, but his penalty was changed to penal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances, and the certainty that Hilton Cubitt had fired the first shot.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"There is nothing so bad as a separation. I am quite of your opinion. I know what it is, for Mr Musgrove always attends the assizes, and I am so glad when they are over, and he is safe back again."

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)