Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SUIT, n. [Norm. suit or suyt; Fr. suite, from suivre, to follow, from L. 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.] – Bacon.
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. The French orthography suite is rejected very properly by Jameson.]
5. A petition; a seeking for something by petition or application. Many shall make suit to thee. – Job xi.
6. Solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship. – Shak.
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. – Blackstone.
8. Pursuit; prosecution; chase. – Spenser. Cyc. 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. Blackstone. 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 signfication; for to bring a suit, now is to institute an action. Out of suits, having no correspondence. – Shak. Suit-covenant, in law, is a covenant to sue at a certain court. – Bailey. Suit-court, in law, the court in which tenants owe attendance to their lord. – Bailey.