Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Conclave

Con′clave, n. [F., fr. L. conclave a room that may locked up; con- + clavis key. See Clavicle.] 1. The set of apartments within which the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are continuously secluded while engaged in choosing a pope.

2. The body of cardinals shut up in the conclave for the election of a pope; hence, the body of cardinals.

It was said a cardinal, by reason of his apparent likelihood to step into St. Peter's chair, that in two conclaves he went in pope and came out again cardinal. South.

3. A private meeting; a close or secret assembly.

The verdicts pronounced by this conclave (Johnson's Club) on new books, were speedily known over all London. Macaulay.

To be in conclave, to be engaged in a secret meeting; — said of several, or a considerable number of, persons.

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 “?”.