house of assembly

plural houses of assembly · alternative House of Assembly

1. governmentEspecially in current or former countries of the Commonwealth of Nations and in former British colonies, the official meeting place of elected legislators (usually the lower house of a bicameral legislature) where laws are debated and enacted.

   Magon Farcinelle, farrier, farmer and member of the provincial legislature . . . had never made a speech in the House of Assembly, and it was hard to tell why he was elected, save because everybody liked him.

   1896, Gilbert Parker, chapter 1, in The Pomp of the Lavilettes

   3 more examples

   A Governor, with two houses of legislature, generally called the Senate and the House of Representatives, exists in each State. In the State of New York the Lower House is called the Assembly. . . . The House of Assembly does consist of 128 members.

   1862, Anthony Trollope, North America, ch. 15: Constitution of the State of New York

   President P. W. Botha . . . tried to appease critics of South Africa's whites-only legislature, the House of Assembly, by creating a mixed-race chamber, the House of Representatives, and another smaller forum for ethnic Asians, the House of Delegates.

   1988 October 4, Christopher S. Wren, “Residential Apartheid Arouses Anger”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 Dec 2015

   The comments followed a decision last week by a Foreign Office minister, Chris Bryant, to instruct the governor of the Turks & Caicos, Gordon Wetherell, to bring into force an order suspending the islands' government and its House of Assembly for up to two years.

   2009 August 16, Jamie Doward, “Islanders split as Whitehall takes over Turks and Caicos”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 21 Dec 2015

plural Houses of Assembly

1. alternativeAlternative form of house of assembly.