colloquy

plural colloquies

1. countableformaluncountableA conversation or dialogue.First known use 15th c.

   House Prees and Bloods […] were everywhere to be seen in earnest colloquy. For the matter was, that there was some sort of night-prowler about the school grounds.

   1922, Michael Arlen, “1/1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

   1 more example

   And she repeated the free caress into which her colloquies with Maisie almost always broke and which made the child feel that her affection at least was a gage of safety.

   1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew

2. countableobsoleteuncountableA formal conference.First known use 16th–17th c.
3. countableuncountableChristianityA church court held by certain Reformed denominations.First known use 17th c.
4. countableuncountableA written discourse.First known use 18th c.
5. countableuncountablelawA discussion during a trial in which a judge ensures that the defendant understands what is taking place in the trial and what his or her rights are.

   At the end of the colloquy, Judge Spicer asked Carr whether anyone had "pressured" him into accepting the deal.

   1999, H. L. Pohlman, The Whole Truth?: A Case of Murder on the Appalachian Trail, →ISBN, page 193

6. countableuncountableclassical studiesA collection of scripted dialogues written as a textbook, or a set of exercises, to help students to practice and improve their Latin or Ancient Greek. See: Colloquy

   The Colloquies are, in essence, a textbook of linguistic exercises to help students to practice and improve their Latin, but Erasmus also recognized his book’s potential for inspiring Europe with his humanist ideals.

   2021, Giuseppina Ieraci, “Erasmus' Colloquies: Latin and the Good Life”, in Center for Renaissance and Reformation Studies

   1 more example

   That a man should speak Latin was taken for granted, but to speak good Latin required training, and to give this training was the object of numerous school colloquies, which aimed to teach the Latin of Terence and of Cicero's Letters, ...

   1919 January, Florence A. Gragg, “Two Schoolmasters of the Renaissance”, in The Classical Journal, volume 14, number 4, pages 211-223

present singular third person colloquies · participle present colloquying · participle past colloquied · past colloquied

1. intransitiverareTo converse.