As-size'1, n.
n. [Fr. assises, O. Fr. assise, Pr. assiza, assembly of judges, the decree pronounced by them, tax, impost, from assis, assise, p. p. of O. Fr. & Pr. assire, Lat. assidere, to sit by, from ad and sedere, to sit; L. Lat. assisa, assisia.]
Sense 1. Originally, 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.
Sense 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.) Any thing fixed or reduced to a certainty in point of time, number, quantity, quality, weight, measure, &c.; as, rent of assize. Glanville. Spelman. Cowell. Blackstone. Tomlins. Burrill. [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. Encycl. Brit. (g.) The periodical sessions of the judges of the superior courts in the counties 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.
Sense 3. Measure; dimension. [In this sense, now corrupted into size, which see.]
An hundred cubits high by just assize. Spenser.
This word was formerly written, as in French, assise.