King James Bible Dictionary

SUIT, noun [Latin sequor.] See Seek. In Law Latin, secta is from the same source.] Literally, a following; and so used in the old English statutes.

1. Consecution; succession; series; regular order; as the same kind and suit of weather. [Not now so applied.]

2. A set; a number of things used together, and in a degree necessary to be united, in order to answer the purpose; as a suit of curtains; a suit of armor; sometimes with less dependence of the particular parts on each other, but still united in use; as a suit of clothes; a suit of apartments.

3. A set of the same kind or stamp, as a suit of cards.

4. Retinue; a company or number of attendants or followers; attendance; train; as a nobleman and his suit [This is sometimes pronounced as a French word, sweet; but in all its senses, this is the same word, and the affectation of making it French in one use and English in another, is improper, not to say ridiculous.]

5. A petition; a seeking for something by petition or application.

Many shall make suit to thee. Job 11:19.

6. Solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship.

7. In law, an action or process for the recovery of a right or claim; legal application to a court for justice; prosecution of right before any tribunal; as a civil suit; a criminal suit; a suit in chancery.

In England, the several suits or remedial instruments of justice, are distinguished into three kinds, actions personal, real, and mixed.

8. Pursuit; prosecution; chase.

SUIT and service, in feudal law, the duty of feudatories to attend the courts of their lords or superiors in time of peace, and in war, to follow them and perform military service.

To bring suit a phrase in law, denoting literally to bring secta, followers or witnesses to prove the plaintif's demand. The phrase is antiquated, or rather it has changed its signification; for to bring a suit now is to institute an action.

Out of suits, having no correspondence.

SUIT-covenant, in law, is a covenant to sue at a certain court.

SUIT-court, in law, the court in which tenants owe attendance to their lord.

SUIT, verb transitive To fit; to adapt; to make proper. suit the action to the word. suit the gestures to the passion to be expressed. suit the style to the subject.

1. To become; to be fitted to.

Ill suits his cloth the praise of railing well.

Raise her notes to that sublime degree,

Which suits a song of piety and thee.

2. To dress; to clothe.

Such a Sebastian was by brother too,

So went he suited to his watery tomb.

3. To please; to make content. He is well suited with his place.

SUIT, verb intransitive To agree; to accord; as, to suit with; to suit to. Pity suits with a noble nature.

Give me not an office

That suits with me so ill--

The place itself was suiting to his care.

[The use of with, after suit is now most frequent.]

SUITABLE, adjective Fitting; according with; agreeable to; proper; becoming; as ornaments suitable to one's character and station; language suitable to the subject.

1. Adequate. We cannot make suitable returns for divine mercies.

SUITABLENESS, noun Fitness; propriety; agreeableness; a state of being adapted or accommodated. Consider the laws, and their suitableness to our moral state.

SUITABLY, adverb Fitly; agreeably; with propriety. Let words be suitably applied.

SUITED, participle passive Fitted; adapted; pleased.

SUITING, participle present tense Fitting; according with; becoming; pleasing.

SUITOR, noun One that sues or prosecutes a demand of right in law, as a plaintiff, petitioner or appellant.

1. One who attends a court, whether plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, appellant, witness, juror and the like. These, in legal phraseology, are all included in the word suitors.

2. A petitioner; an applicant.

She hath been a suitor to me for her brother.

3. One who solicits a woman in marriage; a wooer; a lover.

SUITRESS, noun A female supplicant.