▪ I. petition, n.
(pɪˈtɪʃən)
Also 4–7 -cion, 4–6 -cioun, -cyon, etc.
[a. F. pétition, in OF. peticiun (12th c. in Littré), ad. L. petītiōn-em, n. of action f. petĕre to aim at, seek, lay claim to, ask, beg.]
1. The action of formally asking, begging, supplicating, or humbly requesting; esp. in phr. to make petition, to ask, supplicate, or formally beg.
| 1417 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 57 He was forced againste his will to make peticion to have yo{supr} Peace by indenture. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxvi. (Percy Soc.) 187 We thought to her we made peticion. 1555 Eden Decades 169 The instant peticion of any other person. 1611 Bible Esther vii. 3 Let my life be giuen me at my petition. 1673 Temple Observ. United Prov. Wks. 1731 I. 37 Petition signifying barely asking or demanding, tho' implying the Thing demanded to be wholly in the Right and Power of them that give. 1817 Cobbett Addr. Men Bristol Wks. XXXII. 64 Petition, peaceable petition, is the course. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 212 The company's charter could be renewed only on petition and payment of a fine. |
† b. petition of the principle: begging of the question; = petitio principii. Obs.
| 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 223 He must haue an easie aduersarie, or else he shall gaine litle by such petition of principles. 1618 Chapman Hesiod Ded., Or if the allusion (or petition of the Principle) begge with too broad a Licence in the Generall. 1829 Landor Imag. Conv., Diogenes & Plato Wks. 1853 I. 458/1 Those terms are puerile, and imply a petition of a principle. |
2. A supplication or prayer; an entreaty; esp. a solemn and humble prayer to the Deity, or to a sovereign or superior; also, one of the clauses of a prayer, e.g. of the Lord's prayer.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 299 Nede behoued him grante to clerke & baroun, & hold þam þe conante of ilk peticioun. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 363 (MS. Gg. 4. 27) And here compleyntys & petyciouns. 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. i. 214 Now syre this is my petycyon for thys feest, that ye wylle gyue me mete and drynke suffycyauntly for this twelue moneth. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, Then shall the priest saye the Lordes prayer, the people repeating after him euery peticion. 1671 Milton Samson 650 This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard, No long petition, speedy death. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 733 What shou'd he do, who twice had lost his Love? What Notes invent, what new Petitions move? 1750 Gray Long Story 49 My Lady heard their joint petition. 1885 Ruskin Pleas. Eng. 136 Our petition in the Litany, against sudden death, was written originally to her [St. Barbara]. |
b. transf. The matter of the petition; the thing asked or entreated: as in to have or receive one's petition, to grant a petition.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxxviii. 154 (Harl. MS.) Sithe I shall dye, I aske the law of yow, scil. þat I may have iij. peticiouns or I deye. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. iv. (1520) 31 b/2 He sayde..he sholde haue somwhat of his petycyon. 1526 Tindale 1 John v. 15 We knowe thatt we shall have the peticions that wee desyred of hym. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 58 O Rome, I make thee promise, If the redresse will follow, thou receiuest Thy full Petition at the hand of Brutus. |
3. A formally drawn up request or supplication; esp. a written supplication from an individual or body of inferiors to a superior, or to a person or body in authority (as a sovereign or legislature), soliciting some favour, privilege, right, or mercy, or the redress of some wrong or grievance.
| [1314–15 Rolls of Parlt. I. 297/1 La dite Prohibition, dount les transescryt est cosu a ceste petitioun.] 1450 Ibid. V. 186/1 Agreith to this Petition of Resumption, and the same accepteth. 1544 tr. Littleton's Tenures (1574) 17 They haue none other remedy but to sue vnto the lorde by peticion. 1601 Shakes. All's Well v. i. 19 That it will please you To giue this poore petition to the King. 1631 Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 8 The petition of Philip Bushell, whose Father was unjustly condemned, soe is the title. 1736 Sheridan in Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 161 Thus this great affair has ended like the Yorkshire petition, which has been the chief business of the house of commons this session. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 386 Goods are said to be delivered by Petition, when they are returned for some legal purpose, and are allowed to be imported without the tedious form of an entry. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 550 They prepared a petition to the House against the Bill. |
† b. spec. The form in which the Houses of Parliament formerly presented a measure for the king's granting: now represented by the passing of a bill for the royal assent. Obs. exc. Hist.
| [1367 Act 36 Edw. III, c. 2 Sachiez nous avoir resceu la peticion baillez a nous par la commune de notre realme, en cest present parlement en la forme qui sensuyt.] 1414 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 22 Þe kyng of his grace especial graunteþ þat fro hens forþ no þyng be enacted to þe Peticione of the Comune, þat be contrarie of hir askyng, wharby þey shuld be bounde wiþoute their assent. 1439 Ibid. V. 9/1 A Petition putte up to the Kyng in this Parlement, by the Communes of this londe. 1512 Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 11 Everything..byfore rehersed declared and expressed in this bill of peticion. 1681 Nevile Plato Rediv. 111 Another Act..by which it was provided, That no Parliament should be dismist, till all the Petitions were answered; That is, in the Language of those times, till all the Bills..were finished. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) V. 3 It became..fully established in the reign of Rich. III. that no award could be made on a private petition, without a formal and complete act of the whole legislature. |
c. Petition and Advice (Eng. Hist.): the Remonstrance presented by Parliament to Cromwell on 4 Apr. 1657.
| 1657–76 Whitelock Mem. (1732) 655/2 A Writing which they stiled, The humble Petition and Advice of the Parliament of England, Scotland, and Ireland to his Highness. Ibid., This Petition and Advice was presented to his Highness by the House. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 258, 266. 1845 Carlyle Cromwell (1871) IV. x. 245 This ‘Remonstrance’ of Pack's.., under the name ‘Petition and Advice presented to his Highness,’ became famous to the world in those spring months. 1884 C. H. Firth in Low & Pulling Dict. Eng. Hist. 818/1 On the whole the Petition and Advice established a far more workable distribution of political power than the instrument of government. |
d. Petition of Right: the parliamentary declaration of the rights and liberties of the people, set forth in the form of a petition to King Charles I, which was finally assented to by the king in 1628. Although not a formal statute or ordinance, ‘it has ever been accepted as having the full force of law’. (See also 4 a.)
| 1627 Act 3 Chas. I (title) The Peticion exhibited to His Majestie by the Lordes Spirituall and Temporall and Comons in this present Parliament assembled concerning divers Rightes and Liberties of the Subjectes. [Conclusion] All which they most humblie pray of your most Excellent Majestie as their Rightes and Liberties. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §8 Yet all these provocations and many other..produced no other resentment than the Petition of Right. a 1676 Whitelock Mem. (1732) 10/2 The King gave another Answer to the Petition of Right,..which satisfy'd the Commons,..and so that excellent Law passed. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 134 This drew on a parliamentary enquiry, and produced the petition of right, 3 Car. I. 1824 Mackintosh Sp. Ho. Com. 1 June, The illustrious Judge on this occasion appeals to the Petition of Right. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. vii. 391 The Petition of Right, as this statute is still called, from its not being drawn in the common form of an act of parliament. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xv. (1862) 228 The Petition of Right, whereby the Lords and Commons obliged the King to declare the illegality of requiring loans without Parliamentary sanction. |
4. Law. a. petition of right: an ancient Common Law remedy against the Crown for obtaining possession or restitution of real or personal property: in Law Fr. pétition de droit, L. petitio justitiæ. (Encycl. Laws Eng.)
| 1467–8 Rolls of Parlt. V. 575/1 By Writte or Writtes, or by Petition or Petitions of right sued. 1473 Ibid. VI. 72/2 Any Castelles..or Enheritamentes..wherof any persone or persones have had restitution by auctorite of Parlement, or restitution by Travers, Petition of Right, Lyvere, or any Recovere by the cours of the commen lawe. 1658 tr. Coke's Rep. iv. 55 a (1826) II. 428. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. xvii. 256. [1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIV. 242/2 Petition..is used for that remedy which the subject hath to help a wrong done by the king..: In which sense it is either general that the king do him right..: Or it is special, when the conclusion and indorsement are special, for this or that to be done, &c.] 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 34/1 In modern practice the petition of right is not resorted to, except in cases to which neither a traverse of office nor a monstraunce de droit applies, or after those remedies have failed... The Latin term ‘petitio justitiæ’ shows that the words are used in the sense of a ‘petition for right’. 1898 Encycl. Laws Eng. s.v. Petition of Right, Stated in general terms, the only cases in which a petition of right is available are where the land or goods or money of a subject have found their way into the possession of the Crown. |
b. A formal application in writing made to a court (a) for judicial action concerning the matter of a suit then pending before it (formerly called a cause petition); (b) for something which lies in the jurisdiction of the court without an action, as a writ of habeas corpus, an order in bankruptcy, etc.; (c) in some forms of procedure initiating a suit or its equivalent: see quot. 1872.
| 1737 Reclaiming Petition [see reclaiming vbl. n. b]. 1802–12 Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) II. 366 Petition is the name given to the instrument by which, in cases of bankruptcy, claims are preferred to the Lord Chancellor sitting in a judicial capacity superordinate to that of the commissioners of bankruptcy. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 541 Lord Hardwicke... I did not think fit to determine the matter upon a petition, but thought it proper for a bill. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 735 In the judicial procedure of the Court of Session, a petition and complaint is the form in which certain matters of summary and extraordinary jurisdiction are brought under the cognisance of the Court. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 33/1 A petition is an application in writing, addressed to the lord chancellor, the master of the rolls, or to the Equity side of the Court of Exchequer, in which the petitioner states certain facts as the ground on which he prays for the order and direction of the court... A cause petition is a petition in a matter of which the court has already possession by virtue of there being a suit concerning the matter of the petition; and the petitioner is generally either a party to such suit, or he derives a title to some interest in the subject matter of the suit from a party to it. When there is no suit existing about the matter of the petition, it is called an ex parte petition. Ibid. 33/2 A petition may be presented for the appointment of guardians to infants, and for an allowance for their maintenance. 1848 Wharton Law Lex. 518/1 A petition is the proper mode of coming before the court for the relief of insolvent debtors. 1872 Wharton's Law Lex. (ed. 5) 729/2 Divorce and matrimonial suits, and suits instituted under the Legitimacy Declaration Act, are commenced by petition. Ibid., Municipal Election Petitions are tried by a barrister under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. |
† 5. Math. A postulate; an axiom. Obs.
| 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 149/1 These two thinges seme to me two as true pointes, and as plaine to a christen man, as any peticion of Euclidis geometry is to a resonable man. 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. post. i. 6 After the definitions..now follow petitions, which are the second kynd of principles. Ibid., Petitions..are certain general sentences, so plain, and so perspicuous, that they are perceiued to be true as soone as they are vttered. 1656 tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 37 Also certain petitions are commonly received into the number of principles; as, for example, that a straight line may be drawn between two points. 1709 J. Ward Yng. Math Guide (1734) 11 Postulate or Petition. That any Number may be diminished..by taking another Number from it. 1795 Hutton Math. Dict. II. 270/1 Postulate, a demand, petition, or a problem of so obvious a nature as to need neither demonstration, nor explication, to render it more plain or certain. |
6. attrib. and Comb., as petition-form, petition-monger, petition-writer; petition crown, a pattern crown-piece presented to Charles II by Thomas Simon, and bearing his request for its comparison with the work of John Roeter by whom he had been superseded at the mint.
| 1853 Numismatic Chron. XVI. 135 Simon's ‘Trial Piece’..There exist four varieties...that which has on the edge Simon's Petition to Charles II. to be employed on his new coinage, and which is consequently known by the name of the Petition Crown. 1903 Daily Chron. 6 Nov. 5/2 The Petition Crown piece, of which a specimen was sold on Wednesday for {pstlg}310, was the famous Simon's protest against foreign labour. 1887 Bulloch Pynours v. 46 This brave document was inspired by some petition-monger. 1900 Daily News 30 Apr. 6/2 We have to bribe magistrates, clerks, and petition-writers to get a hearing. |
▪ II. petition, v.
(pɪˈtɪʃən)
[f. petition n.: cf. mod.F. pétitionner (1792 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. trans. To address or present a petition to; to make a humble request or supplication to; spec. to address a formal written petition to (a sovereign, a legislative body, person in authority, or court).
| 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 187 You haue, I know, petition'd All the Gods for my prosperitie. 1637 Documents agst. Prynne (Camden) 72 Sondaie last the parishieners petitiond his Majestie that their church might not be pulld downe. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. i. 143 There still remains a fourth subordinate right, appertaining to every individual, namely, the right of petitioning the king, or either house of parliament, for the redress of grievances. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) V. 161 Lord Pembroke petitioned the House of Lords for a bill to set aside an amendment made in a fine, levied in the Court of Great Sessions in Wales. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 273 To petition the emperor to hold an ecclesiastical council in the German nation. 1857–8 Sears Athan. ii. ii. 186 They petition Pilate for a guard. |
b. To solicit, ask, beg for (a thing).
| 1631 Heylin St. George 86 The picture of some state or Country, petitioning..the ayde and helping-hand of so great a Saint. 1812 Crabbe Tales xvi. Confidant, All that I hope, petition, or expect. |
2. absol. or intr. To address or present a petition, to make petition, to make a humble request or entreaty, to ask humbly (for something).
| 1634 Heywood Maidenhead Lost i. Wks. 1874 IV. 108 You petition heere For Men and Money! 1751 C. Labelye Westm. Br. 25 Westminster Bridge was petitioned for. 1766 Entick London IV. 71 The method of gaining admission into this hospital is by petitioning to the committee. 1838 Lytton Alice iv. v, The Colonel petitioned for three days consideration. 1847 Tennyson Princ. vi. 300 Then Violet..Petition'd too for him. |
Hence petitioned (pɪˈtɪʃənd) ppl. a.
| 1894 H. Hunt in Daily News 11 June 8/2 That the petitioned should not misunderstand us. |