Michaelmas term

Noun

Michaelmas term (plural Michaelmas terms)

1. The first term of the legal year, running from October to December, during which the upper courts of England and Wales, and Ireland, sit to hear cases.
   • A Rule was made for the Plaintiff to ſhew Cauſe why the Trial ſhould not be reſpited till Michaelmas Term next upon Affidavits that a material Witneſs for Defendant was gone to Sea, and was not expected home till Auguſt next. […] Per Cur[iam]: Let the Rule be abſolute, it being ſworn that the...1772, Henry Barnes, “Stratford against Marshall”, in Notes of Cases in Points of Practice Taken in the Courts of Common Pleas at Westminster; from Michaelmas Term 1732, to Hilary Term 1756 inclusive....
   • In Robinson v. Taylor, 5 Dowl. 518, which was a country cause, and issue had been joined in Easter vacation; no notice of trial for the summer assizes; it was held that it was not too early to move in the following Michaelmas term.1839, Charles [Favell Forth] Wordsworth, “Cases Determined upon the New Rules and Statutes since the Publication of the Last Edition”, in Supplement to the Rules of Court, from Michaelmas Term, 1830...
2. The first academic term of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, and other educational institutions, running from October to December; the term was modelled after the legal term, but does not begin and end on the same dates.
   • There are four terms in the year, viz. 1. Michaelmas term, which begins on the 10th of October, and ends on the 17th of December.1813, “University Terms, and How Many are Required to be Kept for each Degree”, in The Oxford University Calendar, for the Year 1813, Oxford: […] Munday and Slatter, for J. Parker; and F[rancis]...
   • Archbishop King's Lecturer lectures, for the two first Terms, upon the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, with a special reference to the objections against them, and in the third Term, upon the Socinian Controversy. The course of his Assistants is— / Michaelmas Term.—The Gospel of St....1838, James Thomas O’Brien, “Note F.—Page 5.”, in An Introductory Lecture Delivered in the Divinity School in Trinity College, Dublin, on the First Lecture Day of Michaelmas term, 1837, Dublin...