[ad. L. admissiōn-em, n. of action f. admiss- ppl. stem of admittĕre: see ADMIT. Cf. Fr. admission, late, not in Cotgr., 1632.] The action of admitting to some position, standing or privileges; distinguished from ADMITTANCE the literal action of letting in to a place.
1. The action of admitting to a place and its privileges, into a society or company of men, or class of things. Attributed also to the person admitted; thus = the fact of being admitted, access.
1622. Bacon, Henry VII., 146 (J.). There was also enacted that Charitable Law, for the admission of poore Suitors In Forma Pauperis, without Fee to Councellor, Atturney, or Clerke.
1630. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (1870), 17. Charged by her expresse command to look precisely to all admissions into the Privy-Chamber.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 14. Baptizing is the Act, or Sign of their solemn admission.
1667. Sprat, Hist. Roy. Soc., 77 (T.). Some small admission-money and weekly contributions amongst themselves.
1790. Paley, Hor. Paul., I. 6. They have never found admission into any catalogue of apostolical writings.
1828. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), 218. Elegance in prose composition is mainly this: a just admission of topics and of words.
1851. Ruskin, Stones of Ven., xvii. (1874), I. 188. They have free admission of the light of Heaven.
2. Reception or acceptance into an office or position; appointment, institution.
1494. Fabyan, VI. cxcvi. 200. After ye deth of Edgare, stryfe arose amonges the lordes for admyssion of theyr kyng.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Logic, Ded. ¶ 4 b. Having once knowen the price of an admission, Salting, and Matriculation, with the intertayning of Freshmenne in the Rhetorike schooles.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 17. This formal admission of St. Matthias into the number of the apostles.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 39. Admission is when the Patron presents a Clerk to a Church that is vacant, and the Bishop upon Examination admits and allows of such Clerk to be fitly qualify’d.
1818. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange’s Life, II. xi. 45. Poor Miss Phœbe was in that state which is of all others most favourable to the admission of a new lover—she had just lost an old one.
3. The admitting (of anything) as proper, valid or true; acknowledging, allowing or conceding.
1538. Starkey, England, 128. You are veray esy in the admyssyon of thes fautys in the spiritualty.
1661. Bramhall, Just. Vind., ii. 15. In admission of the same discipline, and subjection to the same supream Ecclesiastical authority.
1794. Sullivan, View of Nat., II. 268. The admission of supernatural truths, is much less an active consent, than a cold and passive acquiescence.
1807. Marshall, Constit. Opin. (1839), 45. To the admission of this testimony great and serious objections have been made.
b. Law and gen. A concession, an acknowledgement.
1808. Peake, Evidence, 17. His wife’s admission that she had agreed to pay 4s. a week was allowed to be given in evidence.
1846. Mill, Logic, II. iii. § 2 (1868), 205. To press the consequences of an admission into which a person has been entrapped.
1868. Helps, Realmah, xv. (1876), 410. I decline … to make more admissions than I can help.
1876. J. F. Stephens, Law of Evid., xv. An admission is a statement, oral or written, suggesting any inference as unfavourable to the conclusion contended for by the person by whom or on whose behalf the statement is made.
¶ Admision c. 1450 in trans. Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 105 is a misprint for a diuision (Higd. limitem).
