quarter sessions

plural noun

Definition of quarter sessions

: a former English local court with limited original and appellate criminal and sometimes civil jurisdiction and often administrative functions held quarterly usually by two justices of the peace in a county or by a recorder in a borough

Recent Examples of quarter sessions from the Web

Critics have called for the office to be abolished and its functions picked up by the courts, in the same way that the position of clerk of quarter sessions was ended in 2010.

— craig r. mccoy, Philly.com, "Former Philly Sheriff John Green beats every charge in federal bribery-conspiracy trial," 3 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'quarter sessions.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.