Obs. exc. Hist. [a. F. consulte = It., Sp., med.L. consulta, f. pa. pple. consultus, -a, -um of L. consulĕre to counsel, consult. But in sense 3 it represents L. consultum, It. consulto, consultation, decision, etc.; and it may have been often taken as a direct formation from the verb, as in appeal, demand, request, etc. In verse, consu·lt is usual; co·nsult occurs in Garth 1699, Tate, Swift 1730.]
1. The action of consulting, consultation.
1560. Frampton, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xx. 242. The man of law … sitteth by the inquisitors in their consult.
1641. Shirley, Cardinal, IV. i. The King and Cardinal in consult!
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. x. 201. Upon consult of reason, there will bee found no easie assurance.
1700. Rowe, Amb. Step-Mother, I. i. 35. As I past The outward rooms, I found ’em in consult.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, I. 719. Seen In close consult.
1806. J. Grahame, Birds Scot., 67. Or clustering sit, as if in deep consult.
b. (with a and pl.) A consultation.
1600. Holland, Livy, I. II. iv. 35. Whom their Uncles likewise took for their Assistants in that Consult.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XI. (1843), 694/1. There were many secret consults what to do with him.
1750. Carte, Hist. Eng., II. 321. Their consults produced resolutions of violence.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), IV. 116. What profound consults there were!
1889. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 247. The consult took place at St. James’s.
† c. A counsel. Obs.
1654. Cokaine, Dianea, I. 67. If ever the candidness of my thoughts … and the freedome of my Consults have aimed at any thing then the Reputation of your Majesty.
† d. Subject of consultation or deliberation.
1683. Cave, Ecclesiastici, 278. His next Consult was, in what course of life he should fix himself.
1689. T. R., View Govt. Europe, 70. All their consult is how to cheat him.
2. A meeting for consultation; the body of persons so meeting; in 17th c. often spec. a secret meeting for purposes of sedition or intrigue, a cabal.
c. 1634. Earl Strafford, in Browning, Life (1890), 154. Take heed of private meetings and consults in your chambers.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. ii. 149. Both Parties … Hearded only in Consults.
1683. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 267. He had been at several consults for the taking of the king.
1700. Brown, Dufresny’s Amusem., 93. He died of the Doctor. See a Consult of them marching in State to a Patient, attended by a Diminutive Apothecary.
1762. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxviii. 142. Stafford had assisted in a great consult of the catholics held at Tixal.
1823. Scott, Peveril, xxiii. You saw him at a consult of the Jesuits in London.
3. Rom. Hist. A decree of the senate [L. senatus consultum].
1533. Bellenden, Livy, V. (1822), 476. Be consult of the senate, he gaif his lauboris, first, that the templis … suld be recounseld, renewit, and purifyit.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. xxviii. 532. It has often been inferred from a passage in Tacitus that consults or acts of the senate first acquired this virtue under the reign of Tiberius.
