invitation

Noun

invitation (countable and uncountable, plural invitations)

1. The act of inviting; solicitation; the requesting of a person's company.
   • an invitation to a party, to a dinner, or to visit a friend
   • At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   invitement, lathing

2. A document or verbal message conveying an invitation.
   • We need to print off fifty invitations for the party.
3. Allurement; enticement.
4. A line that is intentionally left open to encourage the opponent to attack.
5. The brief exhortation introducing the confession in the Anglican communion-office.
6. A bid that tells one's partner that game or slam is likely if their hand is at the strong end of what they have indicated.
   • I assume also that opener would have shown no interest in slam by either bidding 4NT or 50 after the slam invitation of 46.2001, Matthew Granovetter, Pamela Granovetter, The Best of Bridge Today Digest, page 113
   • To any other invitation made by the captain, acceptance or refusal of the invitation is exclusively a question of points within the range advertised in the opening statement, and the invitation is always in the last called suit.2011, Gerard Cohen, Bridge Is a Conversation: Part I: the Auction, page 71