[a. F. consultation, or ad. L. consultātiōn-em, n. of action f. consultāre to CONSULT.]
1. The action of consulting or taking counsel together; deliberation, conference.
1548. Hall, Chron., 246 b. After long consultation had.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. xxiv. § 6. If bishops did often use … the help of mutual consultation.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., vii. § 13. 119. There must be certain set times and places for deliberation and consultation of affaires.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 128. It is plain enough that Brutes are not above consultation but below it.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, I. 342. My advice in consultation given.
b. The matter or plan deliberated on.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 17 March. Their design and consultation was … how to proceed with the most solemnity.
2. (with a and pl.) A conference in which the parties consult and deliberate; a meeting for deliberation or discussion.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. v. 2. Wyth syndry consultatyownys.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 11. To guide and direct them in their consultations of future things.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxii. 120. Every member of the Body may be present at the consultations, if he will.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 194, ¶ 2. By frequent consultations with his dancing-master.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, ii. 30. They had arranged the time and place for a general consultation.
b. Law. ‘A meeting for deliberating or advising with counsel’ (Wharton).
1882. Sergt. Ballantine, Exper. Barrister’s Life (ed. 3), II. 99. In a consultation that gentleman admitted his guilt to the counsel.
c. Med.
1800. Duncan, Annals of Med., V. 493. Mr. Benjamin Bell still persists in his intention of publishing his consultations and observations on various important points in Surgery.
1806. Abernethy, Surg. Observ., II. 12. The next day the patient requested to see me in consultation.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Consultation … was anciently explained as signifying that office of the physician by which the unlearned are instructed by the learned … The term … is now applied to a consideration of, and deliberation on, by one or more medical practitioners, the condition of a sick person.
3. The action of consulting or referring to (a book).
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 87, ¶ 12. By the consultation of books … temptations to petulance are avoided.
4. Law. (See quots.)
1548. Act 2–3 Edw. VI., c. 13 § 14. (Ruffhead) The Party that is … hindred of his … Suit in the Ecclesiastical Court by such Prohibition, shall have a Consultation granted in the same Case by the Court where the said Prohibition was granted.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 79. Consultation is a writ whereby a cause being formerly removed by prohibition, out of the Ecclesiasticall Court or Court Christian, to the Kings Court, is returned thither againe.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v., This writ is in nature of a procedendo; but properly a consultation ought not to be granted, but in case where a man cannot recover at the Common Law.
5. attrib. Consultation table, council-table.
1829. The Bengallee, 337. There was a large marble consultation table in the centre of the room.
c. 1832. Lives Brit. Physicians, 245. He had retired from all but consultation practice.
