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.
[Origin: 1250–1300; ME asise < OF: a sitting, n. use of fem. of asis seated at (ptp. of aseeir), equiv. to a-a-5+ -sis < L séssum (sed- s. of sedére to sit+ -tus ptp. suffix)]
1303 (attested from 1164 in Anglo-L.), from O.Fr. asise "session," from fem. pp. of asseoir "to cause to sit," from L. assidere (see assess). Originally "all legal proceedings of the nature of inquests or recognitions;" hence sessions held periodically in each Eng. county to administer civil and criminal justice.
As*sess"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assessed; p. pr. & vb. n. Assessing.] [OF. assesser to regulate, settle, LL. assessare to value for taxation, fr. L. assidere, supine as if assessum, to sit by, esp. of judges in a court, in LL. to assess, tax. Cf. Assize, v., Cess.]1. To value; to make a valuation or official estimate of for the purpose of taxation. 2. To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment. 3. To determine and impose a tax or fine upon (a person, community, estate, or income); to tax; as, the club assessed each member twenty-five cents. 4. To fix or determine the rate or amount of. This sum is assessed and raised upon individuals by commissioners in the act. --Blackstone.
As*size"\, n. [OE. assise, asise, OF. assise, F. assises, assembly of judges, the decree pronounced by them, tax, impost, fr. assis, assise, p. p. of asseoir, fr. L. assid?re to sit by; ad + sed[=e]re to sit. See Sit, Size, and cf. Excise, Assess.]1. An assembly of knights and other substantial men, with a bailiff or justice, in a certain place and at a certain time, for public business. [Obs.] 2. (Law) (a) A special kind of jury or inquest. (b) A kind of writ or real action. (c) A verdict or finding of a jury upon such writ. (d) A statute or ordinance in general. Specifically: (1) A statute regulating the weight, measure, and proportions of ingredients and the price of articles sold in the market; as, the assize of bread and other provisions; (2) A statute fixing the standard of weights and measures. (e) Anything fixed or reduced to a certainty in point of time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, etc.; as, rent of assize. --Glanvill. --Spelman. --Cowell. --Blackstone. --Tomlins. --Burrill. Note: [This term is not now used in England in the sense of a writ or real action, and seldom of a jury of any kind, but in Scotch practice it is still technically applied to the jury in criminal cases. --Stephen. --Burrill. --Erskine.] (f) A court, the sitting or session of a court, for the trial of processes, whether civil or criminal, by a judge and jury. --Blackstone. --Wharton. --Encyc. Brit. (g) The periodical sessions of the judges of the superior courts in every county of England for the purpose of administering justice in the trial and determination of civil and criminal cases; -- usually in the plural. --Brande. --Wharton. --Craig. --Burrill. (h) The time or place of holding the court of assize; -- generally in the plural, assizes. 3. Measure; dimension; size. [In this sense now corrupted into size.] An hundred cubits high by just assize. --Spenser. [Formerly written, as in French, assise.]
As*size"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assized; p. pr. & vb. n. Assizing.] [From Assize, n.: cf. LL. assisare to decree in assize. Cf. Asses, v.]1. To assess; to value; to rate. [Obs.] --Gower. 2. To fix the weight, measure, or price of, by an ordinance or regulation of authority. [Obs.]
As*size"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assized; p. pr. & vb. n. Assizing.] [From Assize, n.: cf. LL. assisare to decree in assize. Cf. Asses, v.]1. To assess; to value; to rate. [Obs.] --Gower. 2. To fix the weight, measure, or price of, by an ordinance or regulation of authority. [Obs.]
Ex*cise"\, n. [Apparently fr. L. excisum cut off, fr. excidere to cut out or off; ex out, off + caedere to cut; or, as the word was formerly written accise, fr. F. accise, LL. accisia, as if fr. L. accidere, accisum, to cut into; ad + caedere to cut; but prob. transformed fr. OF. assise, LL. assisa, assisia, assize. See Assize, Concise.]1. In inland duty or impost operating as an indirect tax on the consumer, levied upon certain specified articles, as, tobacco, ale, spirits, etc., grown or manufactured in the country. It is also levied to pursue certain trades and deal in certain commodities. Certain direct taxes (as, in England, those on carriages, servants, plate, armorial bearings, etc.), are included in the excise. Often used adjectively; as, excise duties; excise law; excise system. The English excise system corresponds to the internal revenue system in the United States. --Abbot. An excise . . . is a fixed, absolute, and direct charge laid on merchandise, products, or commodities. --11 Allen's (Mass. ) Rpts. 2. That department or bureau of the public service charged with the collection of the excise taxes. [Eng.]
Sit\, v. i. [imp. Sat(Sate, archaic); p. p. Sat (Sitten, obs.); p. pr. & vb. n. Sitting.] [OE. sitten, AS. sittan; akin to OS. sittian, OFries. sitta, D. zitten, G. sitzen, OHG. sizzen, Icel. sitja, SW. sitta, Dan. sidde, Goth. sitan, Russ. sidiete, L. sedere, Gr. ???, Skr. sad. [root]154. Cf. Assess,Assize, Cathedral, Chair, Dissident, Excise, Insidious, Possess, Reside, Sanhedrim, Seance, Seat, n., Sedate, 4th Sell, Siege, Session, Set, v. t., Sizar, Size, Subsidy.]1. To rest upon the haunches, or the lower extremity of the trunk of the body; -- said of human beings, and sometimes of other animals; as, to sit on a sofa, on a chair, or on the ground. And he came and took the book put of the right hand of him that sate upon the seat. --Bible (1551) (Rev. v. 7.) I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at dinner. --Shak. 2. To perch; to rest with the feet drawn up, as birds do on a branch, pole, etc. 3. To remain in a state of repose; to rest; to abide; to rest in any position or condition. And Moses said to . . . the children of Reuben, Shall your brothren go to war, and shall ye sit here? --Num. xxxii. 6. Like a demigod here sit I in the sky. --Shak. 4. To lie, rest, or bear; to press or weigh; -- with on; as, a weight or burden sits lightly upon him. The calamity sits heavy on us. --Jer. Taylor. 5. To be adjusted; to fit; as, a coat sts well or ill. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, Sits not so easy on me as you think. --Shak. 6. To suit one well or ill, as an act; to become; to befit; -- used impersonally. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 7. To cover and warm eggs for hatching, as a fowl; to brood; to incubate. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not. --Jer. xvii. 11. 8. To have position, as at the point blown from; to hold a relative position; to have direction. Like a good miller that knows how to grind, which way soever the wind sits. --Selden. Sits the wind in that quarter? --Sir W. Scott. 9. To occupy a place or seat as a member of an official body; as, to sit in Congress. 10. To hold a session; to be in session for official business; -- said of legislative assemblies, courts, etc.; as, the court sits in January; the aldermen sit to-night. 11. To take a position for the purpose of having some artistic representation of one's self made, as a picture or a bust; as, to sit to a painter. To sit at, to rest under; to be subject to. [Obs.] "A farmer can not husband his ground so well if he sit at a great rent". --Bacon. To sit at meat or at table, to be at table for eating. To sit down. (a) To place one's self on a chair or other seat; as, to sit down when tired. (b) To begin a siege; as, the enemy sat down before the town. (c) To settle; to fix a permanent abode. --Spenser. (d) To rest; to cease as satisfied. "Here we can not sit down, but still proceed in our search." --Rogers. To sit for a fellowship, to offer one's self for examination with a view to obtaining a fellowship. [Eng. Univ.] To sit out. (a) To be without engagement or employment. [Obs.] --Bp. Sanderson. (b) To outstay. To sit under, to be under the instruction or ministrations of; as, to sit under a preacher; to sit under good preaching. To sit up, to rise from, or refrain from, a recumbent posture or from sleep; to sit with the body upright; as, to sit up late at night; also, to watch; as, to sit up with a sick person. "He that was dead sat up, and began to speak." --Luke vii. 15.
Size\, n. [OIt. sisa glue used by painters, shortened fr. assisa, fr. assidere, p. p. assiso, to make to sit, to seat, to place, L. assidere to sit down; ad + sidere to sit down, akin to sedere to sit. See Sit, v. i., and cf. Assize, Size bulk.]1. A thin, weak glue used in various trades, as in painting, bookbinding, paper making, etc. 2. Any viscous substance, as gilder's varnish.
Size\, n. [Abbrev. from assize. See Assize, and cf. Size glue.]1. A settled quantity or allowance. See Assize. [Obs.] "To scant my sizes." --Shak. 2. (Univ. of Cambridge, Eng.) An allowance of food and drink from the buttery, aside from the regular dinner at commons; -- corresponding to battel at Oxford. 3. Extent of superficies or volume; bulk; bigness; magnitude; as, the size of a tree or of a mast; the size of a ship or of a rock. 4. Figurative bulk; condition as to rank, ability, character, etc.; as, the office demands a man of larger size. Men of a less size and quality. --L'Estrange. The middling or lower size of people. --Swift. 5. A conventional relative measure of dimension, as for shoes, gloves, and other articles made up for sale. 6. An instrument consisting of a number of perforated gauges fastened together at one end by a rivet, -- used for ascertaining the size of pearls. --Knight. Size roll, a small piese of parchment added to a roll. Size stick, a measuring stick used by shoemakers for ascertaining the size of the foot. Syn: Dimension; bigness; largeness; greatness; magnitude.
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