long suit

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.] [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

Thenceforth the suit of earthly conquest shone. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]

3. The act of wooing in love; the solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship. [1913 Webster]

Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend, Till this funereal web my labors end. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

In England the several suits, or remedial instruments of justice, are distinguished into three kinds -- actions personal, real, and mixed. --Blackstone. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort Her mingled suits and sequences. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]

9. Regular order; succession. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

{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]