Con-vĕn'tion, n.
n. [Lat. conventio, Fr. convention, Pr. & Sp. convencion, It. convenzione. See CONVENE.]
Sense 1. The act of coming together, or assembling; union.
The conventions or associations of several particles of matter into bodies. Boyle.
Sense 2. General agreement or concurrence; arbitrary custom; usage; conventionality; conventionalism.
There are thousands now Such women, but convention beats them down. Tennyson.
Sense 3. An assembly of delegates or representatives to accomplish some specific object, civil, political, or ecclesiastical.
He set himself to the making of good laws in a grand convention of his nobles. Baker.
A convention composed of delegates from all the States, to meet in Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the federal system, and correcting its defects. W. Irving.
Sense 4. (Eng. Hist.) An extraordinary assembly of the 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.
Sense 5. An agreement or contract less formal than, or preliminary to, a treaty or understanding; an informal compact, as between commanders of armies in respect to suspension of hostilities, or between states; also a formal agreement.
This convention, I think from my soul, is nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy; a truce without a suspension of hostilities. Ld. Chatham.