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''summons'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''summons'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260331180822-00-⌔

summons - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

summons (plural summonses)

  • A call to do something, especially to come.
    • ✤ He sent to summon the seditious, and to offer pardon […]; but neither summons nor pardon was any thing regarded.1
    • ✤ this summons […] unfit either to dispute or disobey2
    • ✤ special summonses by the king3
    • ✤ It was more than a week after his introduction to Carrados that Lieutenant Hollyer had a summons to present himself at The Turrets again. He found Mr Carlyle already there and the two friends awaiting his arrival.4
  • (law) A notice summoning someone to appear in court, as a defendant, juror or witness.
    • ✤ Synonyms: subpoena; see also Thesaurus: summons
    • ✤ Four summonses were brought recently on behalf of St. Pancras Borough Council against the British Transport Commission in respect of the emission of smoke by locomotives standing at Camden Motive Power Depot. (The summonses were dismissed)5
  • (military) A demand for surrender.

Verb

summons (third-person singular simple present summonses, present participle summonsing, simple past and past participle summonsed)

  • (transitive) To serve someone with a summons. [17th C.]
    • ✤ It proposes that those held in the prototype Selfridges cells be kept for a maximum of four hours to have their identity confirmed and be charged, summonsed or given a fine.6

Noun

summons

  • plural of summon

Verb

summons

  • third-person singular simple present indicative of summon

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈsʌ.mənz/
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Etymology 1

From Middle English somouns (“order or command to do something”), borrowed from Old French sumunce (modern French semonce), from Vulgar Latin ﹡summonsa, a noun use of the feminine past participle of summoneō, summonēre (“to summon”).

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI: ↩

  2. 1661, John Fell, The Life of the Most Learned, Reverend and Pious Dr. H. Hammond: ↩

  3. 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages: ↩

  4. 1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados: ↩

  5. 1955 December, “Emission of Smoke by Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 812: ↩

  6. 2007 March 15, The Guardian, page 1: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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