[ad. L. conscrīpt-us, pa. pple. of conscrībĕre: see prec.]
A. adj. 1. Enrolled or elected a senator. In pl. Conscript fathers, † father’s conscript [L. patres conscripti, properly patres, conscripti, i.e., patres et conscripti fathers and elect]: a collective title by which the Roman senators were addressed; used also as a title by the Venetian senate.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., xi. (R.). He sayed these wordes, O fathers conscripte, O happie people.
1605. B. Jonson, Sejanus, III. i. Wks. (Rtldg.), 150/1. Fathers conscript, may this our present meeting Turn fair and fortunate to the common-wealth.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 27/1. At first … they were called Fathers only; but afterwards, when more were enroled in their body, Conscript Fathers.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., V. i. 306. Say, conscript fathers, shall she be admitted? [See Note.]
b. Applied allusively to senators, legislators, or the administrative council of a nation, municipality, etc.; rarely in sing.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Indies, II. xxxii. 12. The conscript Fathers of the Colony disagree in many Points … yet they all agree in oppressing Strangers.
1846. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 341. Eliot, Hampden, Pym, nay Ludlow, Hutchinson, Vane … political Conscript Fathers.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., xxx. Hainault House had been raised by a British peer … the locality was no longer sufficiently refined for a conscript father.
† 2. Inscribed in common or identically. rare–1.
1679. Harby, Key Script., II. 44. That 144000 in chap. 7. sealed, were not this 144000 in chap. 14. conscript, or having the Name of God written in their Fore-heads.
3. Enrolled or formed by conscription, as a soldier, or an army.
1823. Southey, Hist. Penins. War, I. 499. Three conscript lads … of the sixty-sixth regiment.
1881. Times, April, 11/4. An enlisting army must always be more difficult to keep up than a conscript army.
1882. Gd. Words, 318. With the assistance of conscript negroes brought down the Nile.
B. sb. [F. conscrit.] A military recruit obtained by conscription; one compulsorily enlisted for military or naval service.
1800. Ann. Reg., 23. The general levy of 200,000 Conscripts [in 1799].
1814. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., XI. 589. The conscripts desert in all directions.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. ix. 323. Were these captives dealt with as conscripts or galley-slaves?
