Summons
['sʌm(ə)nz] or ['sʌmənz]
Definition
(noun.) a writ issued by authority of law; usually compels the defendant's attendance in a civil suit; failure to appear results in a default judgment against the defendant.
(noun.) an order to appear in person at a given place and time.
Checker: Melva--From WordNet
Definition
(v.) The act of summoning; a call by authority, or by the command of a superior, to appear at a place named, or to attend to some duty.
(v.) A warning or citation to appear in court; a written notification signed by the proper officer, to be served on a person, warning him to appear in court at a day specified, to answer to the plaintiff, testify as a witness, or the like.
(v.) A demand to surrender.
(v. t.) To summon.
Typed by Howard
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Citation, official call or notice.
Edited by Blair
Examples
- The pleasanter face which had replaced his, on the occasion of my last visit, answered to our summons, and went before us to the drawing-room. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- The prayer-bell rang; I obeyed its summons. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The ordinary Roman citizen, like the ordinary Boer, was a farmer; at the summons of his country he went on commando. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The summons was almost magical. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- To my surprise, it was a woman who answered the summons, a large, coarse-faced, elderly woman, in an apron. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Reader, it was on Monday night--near midnight--that I too had received the mysterious summons: those were the very words by which I replied to it. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- No, I sent for him: but you know, you affirmed that I might do this with safety, since you were sure he would not obey my summons. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Editor: Segre