- Inn
- Inn Inn ([i^]n), n. [AS. in, inn, house, chamber, inn, from
AS. in in; akin to Icel. inni house. See {In}.]
1. A place of shelter; hence, dwelling; habitation;
residence; abode. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
Therefore with me ye may take up your inn For this same night. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
2. A house for the lodging and entertainment of travelers or wayfarers; a tavern; a public house; a hotel. [1913 Webster]
Note: As distinguished from a private boarding house, an inn is a house for the entertainment of all travelers of good conduct and means of payment, as guests for a brief period, not as lodgers or boarders by contract. [1913 Webster]
The miserable fare and miserable lodgment of a provincial inn. --W. Irving. [1913 Webster]
3. The town residence of a nobleman or distinguished person; as, Leicester Inn. [Eng.] [1913 Webster]
4. One of the colleges (societies or buildings) in London, for students of the law barristers; as, the Inns of Court; the Inns of Chancery; Serjeants' Inns. [1913 Webster]
{Inns of chancery} (Eng.), colleges in which young students formerly began their law studies, now occupied chiefly bp attorn`ys, solocitors, etc.
{Inns of court} (Eng.), the four societies of ``students and practicers of the law of England'' which in London exercise the exclusive right of admitting persons to practice at the bar; also, the buildings in which the law students and barristers have their chambers. They are the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
