Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Convention

Con·ven′tion (kŏn·vĕn′shŭn), n. [L. conventio: cf. F. convention. See Convene, v. i.] 1. The act of coming together; the state of being together; union; coalition.

The conventions or associations of several particles of matter into bodies of any certain denomination. Boyle.

2. General agreement or concurrence; arbitrary custom; usage; conventionality.

There are thousands now Such women, but convention beats them down. Tennyson.

3. A meeting or an assembly of persons, esp. of delegates or representatives, to accomplish some specific object, — civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical.

He set himself to the making of good laws in a grand convention of his nobles. Sir R. Baker.

A convention of delegates from all the States, to meet in Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of reserving the federal system, and correcting its defects. W. Irving.

4. (Eng. Hist) An extraordinary assembly of the parkiament or estates of the realm, held without the king's writ, — as the assembly which restored Charles II. to the throne, and that which declared the throne to be abdicated by James II.

Our gratitude is due . . . to the Long Parliament, to the Convention, and to William of Orange. Macaulay.

5. An agreement or contract less formal than, or preliminary to, a treaty; an informal compact, as between commanders of armies in respect to suspension of hostilities, or between states; also, a formal agreement between governments or sovereign powers; as, a postal convention between two governments.

This convention, I think from my soul, is nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy; a truce without a suspension of hostilities. Ld. Chatham.

The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by their Legislature. T. Jefferson.

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 “?”.