PARLIAMENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Parliament

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/pˈɑrləmənt/ Listen

noun

Parliament n.

1.

A parleying; a discussion; a conference. (Obs.) "But first they held their parliament."

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."

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. Note: 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.

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Etymology of 'Parliament'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Parliament" Quotes from Famous Books

... a government by law. The lawyer is necessarily of subordinate importance in any political system tending towards absolutism. He is even of subordinate importance in a liberal system such as that of Great Britain, where Crown and Parliament, acting together, have the power to enact any desired legislation. The Federal Constitution, on the other hand, by establishing the Supreme Court as the interpreter of the Fundamental Law, and as a separate and independent department of the government, really made the American lawyer responsible ...

— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly

... to travel alone. My tour was to include two traveling companions of distinction and fame. One was James Hogge, M.P., member from East Edinburgh, who was eager, as so many members of Parliament were, to see for himself how things were at the front. James Hogge was one of the members most liked by the soldiers. He had worked hard for them, and gained—and well earned—much fame by the way he struggled with the matter of getting the right ...

— A Minstrel In France • Harry Lauder

... it pains me. And I confess to you that when I resolved to follow Canning and join his new allies, I had many a twinge. I was bred in the Tory camp; the Tories put me in Parliament and gave me office; I lived with them and liked them; we dined and voted together, and together pasquinaded our opponents. And yet, after Castlereagh's death, to whom like yourself I was much attached, I ...

— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli

... Dominion Patent Law went into operation, but it has not yet been approved by the Queen, and if rejected the Canadian Parliament will perhaps try its hand again. Although Canadians may freely go to all parts of the world and take out patents for their inventions, they have always manifested a mean spirit and adopted a narrow policy, in reference to inventors ...

— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various

... read for the first time in the House of Lords, where it was read again a second time on the 14th. On the 16th it was read for the third time, but it did not pass, and probably never reached the Commons; for Queen Mary died on the following day, and thereby the Parliament was dissolved. (Lords' Journal, i. 539, 540.) Queen Elizabeth, however did by her high prerogative what her sister had sought to effect by legislative sanction. In the first year of her reign, 1559, she issued injunctions concerning both the clergy ...

— Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850 • Various

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