Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In old English law, an excuse for not appearing in court to defend an action on the day appointed for that purpose; the alleging of such an excuse.
  • noun Excuse; exemption.
  • noun One who is excused for non-appearance in court on the day appointed.
  • In law, allowed for the appearance of suitors: an epithet applied to the first, three days of a term, now disused.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Eng. Law) An excuse for not appearing in court at the return of process; the allegation of an excuse to the court.
  • noun obsolete Excuse; exemption.
  • noun (Eng. Law) the first general return day of the term, on which the court sits to receive essoins.
  • transitive verb (Eng. Law) To excuse for nonappearance in court.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb UK, law, transitive To excuse for failure to appear in court.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French essoinier, essoignier, essonier, Latin essoniare, exoniare.

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Examples

  • 3 From every work he challenged essoin, challenged essoin > claimed exemption (another legal term) 4 For contemplation's sake: yet otherwise

    The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 Edmund Spenser

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