[syn: become, suit]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Suit \Suit\ (s[=u]t), n. [OE. suite, F. suite, OF. suite,
sieute, fr. suivre to follow, OF. sivre; perhaps influenced
by L. secta. See Sue to follow, and cf. Sect, Suite.]
1. The act of following or pursuing, as game; pursuit. [Obs.]
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2. The act of suing; the process by which one endeavors to
gain an end or an object; an attempt to attain a certain
result; pursuit; endeavor.
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Thenceforth the suit of earthly conquest shone.
--Spenser.
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3. The act of wooing in love; the solicitation of a woman in
marriage; courtship.
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Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend,
Till this funereal web my labors end. --Pope.
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4. (Law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; an
action or process for the recovery of a right or claim;
legal application to a court for justice; prosecution of
right before any tribunal; as, a civil suit; a criminal
suit; a suit in chancery.
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I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino. --Shak.
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In England the several suits, or remedial
instruments of justice, are distinguished into three
kinds -- actions personal, real, and mixed.
--Blackstone.
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5. That which follows as a retinue; a company of attendants
or followers; the assembly of persons who attend upon a
prince, magistrate, or other person of distinction; --
often written suite, and pronounced sw[=e]t.
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6. Things that follow in a series or succession; the
individual objects, collectively considered, which
constitute a series, as of rooms, buildings, compositions,
etc.; -- often written suite, and pronounced sw[=e]t.
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7. A number of things used together, and generally necessary
to be united in order to answer their purpose; a number of
things ordinarily classed or used together; a set; as, a
suit of curtains; a suit of armor; a suit of clothes; a
three-piece business suit. "Two rogues in buckram suits."
--Shak.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
8. (Playing Cards) One of the four sets of cards which
constitute a pack; -- each set consisting of thirteen
cards bearing a particular emblem, as hearts, spades,
clubs, or diamonds; also, the members of each such suit
held by a player in certain games, such as bridge; as,
hearts were her long suit.
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To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort
Her mingled suits and sequences. --Cowper.
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9. Regular order; succession. [Obs.]
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Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit
of weather comes again. --Bacon.
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10. Hence: (derived from def 7) Someone who dresses in a
business suit, as contrasted with more informal attire;
specifically, a person, such as business executive, or
government official, who is apt to view a situation
formalistically, bureaucratically, or according to formal
procedural criteria; -- used derogatively for one who is
inflexible, esp. when a more humanistic or imaginative
approach would be appropriate.
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Out of suits, having no correspondence. [Obs.] --Shak.
Suit and service (Feudal Law), the duty of feudatories to
attend the courts of their lords or superiors in time of
peace, and in war to follow them and do military service;
-- called also suit service. --Blackstone.
Suit broker, one who made a trade of obtaining the suits of
petitioners at court. [Obs.]
Suit court (O. Eng. Law), the court in which tenants owe
attendance to their lord.
Suit covenant (O. Eng. Law), a covenant to sue at a certain
court.
Suit custom (Law), a service which is owed from time
immemorial.
Suit service. (Feudal Law) See Suit and service, above.
To bring suit. (Law)
(a) To bring secta, followers or witnesses, to prove the
plaintiff's demand. [Obs.]
(b) In modern usage, to institute an action.
To follow suit.
(a) (Card Playing) See under Follow, v. t.
(b) To mimic the action of another person; to perform an
action similar to what has preceded; as, when she
walked in, John left the room and his wife followed
suit.
long suit
(a) (Card Playing) the suit[8] of which a player has the
largest number of cards in his hand; as, his long
suit was clubs, but his partner insisted on making
hearts trumps.. Hence: [fig.] that quality or
capability which is a person's best asset; as, we
could see from the mess in his room that neatness was
not his long suit.
strong suit same as long suit,
(b) . "I think our strong suit is that we can score from
both the perimeter and the post." --Bill Disbrow
(basketball coach) 1998. "Rigid ideological
consistency has never been a strong suit of the Whole
Earth Catalogue." --Bruce Sterling (The Hacker
Crackdown, 1994)
[1913 Webster +PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Suit \Suit\, v. i.
To agree; to accord; to be fitted; to correspond; -- usually
followed by with or to.
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The place itself was suiting to his care. --Dryden.
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Give me not an office
That suits with me so ill. --Addison.
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Syn: To agree; accord; comport; tally; correspond; match;
answer.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Suit \Suit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suited; p. pr. & vb. n.
Suiting.]
1. To fit; to adapt; to make proper or suitable; as, to suit
the action to the word. --Shak.
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2. To be fitted to; to accord with; to become; to befit.
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Ill suits his cloth the praise of railing well.
--Dryden.
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Raise her notes to that sublime degree
Which suits song of piety and thee. --Prior.
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3. To dress; to clothe. [Obs.]
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So went he suited to his watery tomb. --Shak.
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4. To please; to make content; as, he is well suited with his
place; to suit one's taste.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
suit
n 1: a set of garments (usually including a jacket and trousers
or skirt) for outerwear all of the same fabric and color;
"they buried him in his best suit" [syn: suit, suit of
clothes]
2: a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law
whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy; "the family
brought suit against the landlord" [syn: lawsuit, suit,
case, cause, causa]
3: (slang) a businessman dressed in a business suit; "all the
suits care about is the bottom line"
4: a man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a
woman (usually with the hope of marriage); "its was a brief
and intense courtship" [syn: courtship, wooing,
courting, suit]
5: a petition or appeal made to a person of superior status or
rank
6: playing card in any of four sets of 13 cards in a pack; each
set has its own symbol and color; "a flush is five cards in
the same suit"; "in bridge you must follow suit"; "what suit
is trumps?"
v 1: be agreeable or acceptable to; "This suits my needs" [syn:
suit, accommodate, fit]
2: be agreeable or acceptable; "This time suits me"
3: accord or comport with; "This kind of behavior does not suit
a young woman!" [syn: befit, suit, beseem]
4: enhance the appearance of; "Mourning becomes Electra"; "This
behavior doesn't suit you!" [syn: become, suit]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
228 Moby Thesaurus words for "suit":
Angelus, Ave, Ave Maria, Hail Mary, Kyrie Eleison, Paternoster,
accommodate, accommodate with, accord, accouter, accusal,
accusation, accusing, action, adapt, adapt to, addresses,
adjuration, adjust, adjust to, agree with, aid prayer, allegation,
allegement, amorous pursuit, answer, appeal, application,
arraignment, asking, assimilate to, attune, battery, be OK,
be guided by, beadroll, beads, become, befit, bend, benefit,
beseechment, bib and tucker, bid, bidding prayer,
bill of particulars, blame, block, breviary, bringing of charges,
bringing to book, business suit, call, canvass, capacitate,
caparison, case, casual suit, cause, cause in court, chaplet,
charge, check, check out, chime in with, clamor, clothes, clothing,
collect, combination, communion, complaint, comply, comply with,
compose, condition, conform, conform to, contemplation, correct,
correspond, costume, count, court, courting, courtship, cry,
delation, denouncement, denunciation, devotions, discipline,
disguise, do, do the job, double-breasted suit, dress, enable,
enhance, ensemble, entreaty, equip, fall in with, fill the bill,
fit, fit out, follow, frock, furnish, gallantry, garb, gear to,
gee, go, go by, go with, grace, gratify, habit, harmonize,
harmonize with, hit the spot, impeachment, impetration,
implication, imploration, imploring, imprecation, imputation,
indictment, information, innuendo, insinuation, intercession,
invocation, invocatory plea, jibe, judicial process, jump suit,
kit, lawsuit, laying of charges, legal action, legal case,
legal proceedings, legal process, legal remedy, litany, litigation,
livery, make conform, masquerade, meditation, meet, mold,
obsecration, observe, obtestation, orison, outfit, pack, petition,
plaint, plea, please, prayer, prayer wheel, proceeding,
proceedings, process, prosecution, put in trim, put in tune,
quadrate, qualify, reconcile, rectify, relate, reproach, request,
requesting, riding habit, rig, rig out, rig up, rogation, rosary,
rub off corners, satisfy, separates, serenade, series, serve, set,
settle, shape, shirtwaist suit, silent prayer,
single-breasted suit, ski suit, solicitation, soliciting,
sports suit, square, straighten, suffice, suing, suit at law,
suite, supplication, tailor, tailored suit, tally, tally with,
taxing, thanks, thanksgiving, trial, tropical suit, true bill,
tune, turn out, two-piece suit, uniform, unspoken accusation,
veiled accusation, wooing, yield
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
suit
n.
1. Ugly and uncomfortable ?business clothing? often worn by non-hackers.
Invariably worn with a ?tie?, a strangulation device that partially cuts
off the blood supply to the brain. It is thought that this explains much
about the behavior of suit-wearers. Compare droid.
2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a techie or
hacker. See pointy-haired, burble, management, Stupids, SNAFU
principle, PHB, and brain-damaged.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
suit
1. Ugly and uncomfortable "business clothing" often worn by
non-hackers. Invariably worn with a "tie", a strangulation
device that partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain.
It is thought that this explains much about the behaviour of
suit-wearers.
2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a
techie or hacker.
See loser, burble, management, Stupids, SNAFU
principle, and brain-damaged.
[Jargon File]
(1998-07-01)
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
SUIT. An action. The word suit in the 25th section of the judiciary act of
1789, applies to any proceeding in a court of justice, in which the
plaintiff pursues, in such court, the remedy which the law affords him. An
application for a prohibition is therefore a suit. 2 Pet. 449. According to
the code of practice of Louisiana, art. 96, a suit is a real, personal or
mixed demand, made before a competent judge, by which the parties pray to
obtain their rights, and a decision of their disputes. In that acceptation,
the words suit, process and cause, are in that state almost synonymous. Vide
Secta, and Steph. Pl. 427; 3 Bl. Com. 395; Gilb. C. P. 48; 1 Chit. Pl. 399;
Wood's Civ. Law, b. 4, c. p. 315; 4 Mass. 263; 18 John. 14; 4 Watts, R. 154;
3 Story, Const. Sec. 1719. In its most extended sense, the word suit,
includes not only a civil action, but also a criminal prosecution, as
indictment, information, and a conviction by a magistrate. Ham. N. P. 270.