SENATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Senate mean? 

• SENATE (noun)
  The noun SENATE has 2 senses:

1. assembly possessing high legislative powers

2. the upper house of the United States Congress

  Familiarity information: SENATE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SENATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Assembly possessing high legislative powers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

general assembly; law-makers; legislative assembly; legislative body; legislature (persons who make or amend or repeal laws)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "senate"):

Senate; U.S. Senate; United States Senate; US Senate (the upper house of the United States Congress)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The upper house of the United States Congress

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

Senate; U.S. Senate; United States Senate; US Senate

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

senate (assembly possessing high legislative powers)

Holonyms ("Senate" is a member of...):

Congress; U.S. Congress; United States Congress; US Congress (the legislature of the United States government)

 Context examples 

Here I discovered the true causes of many great events that have surprised the world; how a whore can govern the back-stairs, the back-stairs a council, and the council a senate.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He'll make the Governor's Chair before he dies, and, who knows? maybe the United States Senate.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The U.S. legislature, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

(Congress, NCI Thesaurus)

I desired that the senate of Rome might appear before me, in one large chamber, and an assembly of somewhat a later age in counterview, in another.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He refused the United States Senate several times, and father says he could become a justice of the Supreme Court any time a vacancy occurs, if he wants to.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And particularly, whether they were ever admitted as members in the lower senate?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“There are three methods, by which a man may rise to be chief minister. The first is, by knowing how, with prudence, to dispose of a wife, a daughter, or a sister; the second, by betraying or undermining his predecessor; and the third is, by a furious zeal, in public assemblies, against the corruptions of the court. But a wise prince would rather choose to employ those who practise the last of these methods; because such zealots prove always the most obsequious and subservient to the will and passions of their master. That these ministers, having all employments at their disposal, preserve themselves in power, by bribing the majority of a senate or great council; and at last, by an expedient, called an act of indemnity” (whereof I described the nature to him), “they secure themselves from after-reckonings, and retire from the public laden with the spoils of the nation.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This project could not be of any great expense to the public; and might in my poor opinion, be of much use for the despatch of business, in those countries where senates have any share in the legislative power; beget unanimity, shorten debates, open a few mouths which are now closed, and close many more which are now open; curb the petulancy of the young, and correct the positiveness of the old; rouse the stupid, and damp the pert.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This doctor therefore proposed, that upon the meeting of the senate, certain physicians should attend it the three first days of their sitting, and at the close of each day’s debate feel the pulses of every senator; after which, having maturely considered and consulted upon the nature of the several maladies, and the methods of cure, they should on the fourth day return to the senate house, attended by their apothecaries stored with proper medicines; and before the members sat, administer to each of them lenitives, aperitives, abstersives, corrosives, restringents, palliatives, laxatives, cephalalgics, icterics, apophlegmatics, acoustics, as their several cases required; and, according as these medicines should operate, repeat, alter, or omit them, at the next meeting.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is allowed, that senates and great councils are often troubled with redundant, ebullient, and other peccant humours; with many diseases of the head, and more of the heart; with strong convulsions, with grievous contractions of the nerves and sinews in both hands, but especially the right; with spleen, flatus, vertigos, and deliriums; with scrofulous tumours, full of fetid purulent matter; with sour frothy ructations: with canine appetites, and crudeness of digestion, besides many others, needless to mention.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)