☞ The order consists of Scholastics, the Professed, the Spiritual Coadjutors, and the Temporal Coadjutors or Lay Brothers. The Jesuit novice after two years becomes a Scholastic, and takes his first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience simply. Some years after, at the close of a second novitiate, he takes his second vows and is ranked among the Coadjutors or Professed. The Professed are bound by a fourth vow, from which only the pope can dispense, requiring them to go wherever the pope may send them for missionary duty. The Coadjutors teach in the schools, and are employed in general missionary labors. The Society is governed by a General who holds office for life. He has associated with him “Assistants” (five at the present time), representing different provinces. The Society was first established in the United States in 1807. The Jesuits have displayed in their enterprises a high degree of zeal, learning, and skill, but, by their enemies, have been generally reputed to use art and intrigue in promoting or accomplishing their purposes, whence the words Jesuit, Jesuitical, and the like, have acquired an opprobrious sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: A crafty person; an intriguer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Jesuits' bark, Peruvian bark, or the bark of certain species of Cinchona; -- so called because its medicinal properties were first made known in Europe by Jesuit missionaries to South America. --
Jesuits' drops. See Friar's balsam, under Friar. --
Jesuits' nut, the European water chestnut. --
Jesuits' powder, powdered cinchona bark. --
Jesuits' tea, a Chilian leguminous shrub, used as a tea and medicinally. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Of or pertaining to the Jesuits, or to their principles and methods. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Designing; cunning; deceitful; crafty; -- an opprobrious use of the word. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The principles and practices of the Jesuits. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Cunning; deceit; deceptive practices to effect a purpose; subtle argument; -- an opprobrious use of the word. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. a one-piece garment resembling a jumpsuit{ 1 }, having a shirt or blouse attached to trousers or shorts. [ PJC ]

Weak we are, and can not shun pursuit. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A following with a view to reach, accomplish, or obtain; endeavor to attain to or gain; as, the pursuit of knowledge; the pursuit of happiness or pleasure. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to same end; as, mercantile pursuits; a literary pursuit. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Law) Prosecution. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

That pursuit for tithes ought, and of ancient time did pertain to the spiritual court. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

Curve of pursuit (Geom.), a curve described by a point which is at each instant moving towards a second point, which is itself moving according to some specified law. [ 1913 Webster ]

The place itself was suiting to his care. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Give me not an office
That suits with me so ill. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To agree; accord; comport; tally; correspond; match; answer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of suing; the process by which one endeavors to gain an end or an object; an attempt to attain a certain result; pursuit; endeavor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thenceforth the suit of earthly conquest shone. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The act of wooing in love; the solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend,
Till this funereal web my labors end. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

In England the several suits, or remedial instruments of justice, are distinguished into three kinds -- actions personal, real, and mixed. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. That which follows as a retinue; a company of attendants or followers; the assembly of persons who attend upon a prince, magistrate, or other person of distinction; -- often written suite, and pronounced [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Things that follow in a series or succession; the individual objects, collectively considered, which constitute a series, as of rooms, buildings, compositions, etc.; -- often written suite, and pronounced [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A number of things used together, and generally necessary to be united in order to answer their purpose; a number of things ordinarily classed or used together; a set; as, a suit of curtains; a suit of armor; a suit of clothes; a three-piece business suit. “Two rogues in buckram suits.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

8. (Playing Cards) One of the four sets of cards which constitute a pack; -- each set consisting of thirteen cards bearing a particular emblem, as hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds; also, the members of each such suit held by a player in certain games, such as bridge; as, hearts were her long suit. [ 1913 Webster ]

To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort
Her mingled suits and sequences. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. Regular order; succession. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. Hence: (derived from def 7) Someone who dresses in a business suit, as contrasted with more informal attire; specifically, a person, such as business executive, or government official, who is apt to view a situation formalistically, bureaucratically, or according to formal procedural criteria; -- used derogatively for one who is inflexible, esp. when a more humanistic or imaginative approach would be appropriate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Out of suits, having no correspondence. [ Obs. ] Shak. --
Suit and service (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 do military service; -- called also suit service. Blackstone. --
Suit broker, one who made a trade of obtaining the suits of petitioners at court. [ Obs. ] --
Suit court (O. Eng. Law), the court in which tenants owe attendance to their lord. --
Suit covenant (O. Eng. Law), a covenant to sue at a certain court. --
Suit custom (Law), a service which is owed from time immemorial. --
Suit service. (Feudal Law) See Suit and service, above. --
To bring suit. (Law) (a) To bring secta, followers or witnesses, to prove the plaintiff's demand. [ Obs. ] (b) In modern usage, to institute an action. --
To follow suit. (a) (Card Playing) See under Follow, v. t. (b) To mimic the action of another person; to perform an action similar to what has preceded; as, when she walked in, John left the room and his wife followed suit. --
long suit (a) (Card Playing) the suit{ 8 } of which a player has the largest number of cards in his hand; as, his long suit was clubs, but his partner insisted on making hearts trumps.. Hence: [ fig. ] that quality or capability which is a person's best asset; as, we could see from the mess in his room that neatness was not his long suit. --
strong suit same as long suit, (b). “I think our strong suit is that we can score from both the perimeter and the post.” Bill Disbrow (basketball coach) 1998. “Rigid ideological consistency has never been a strong suit of the Whole Earth Catalogue.” Bruce Sterling (The Hacker Crackdown, 1994) [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. To be fitted to; to accord with; to become; to befit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ill suits his cloth the praise of railing well. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Raise her notes to that sublime degree
Which suits song of piety and thee. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To dress; to clothe. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

So went he suited to his watery tomb. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To please; to make content; as, he is well suited with his place; to suit one's taste. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Proper; fitting; becoming; accordant; agreeable; competent; correspondent; compatible; consonant; congruous; consistent. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A connected series or succession of objects; a number of things used or clessed together; a set; as, a suite of rooms; a suite of minerals. See Suit, n., 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mr. Barnard took one of the candles that stood upon the king's table, and lighted his majesty through a suite of rooms till they came to a private door into the library. Boswell. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mus.) One of the old musical forms, before the time of the more compact sonata, consisting of a string or series of pieces all in the same key, mostly in various dance rhythms, with sometimes an elaborate prelude. Some composers of the present day affect the suite form. [ 1913 Webster ]

She hath been a suitor to me for her brother. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Especially, one who solicits a woman in marriage; a wooer; a lover. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (a) (Law) One who sues or prosecutes a demand in court; a party to a suit, as a plaintiff, petitioner, etc. (b) (O. Eng. Law) One who attends a court as plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, appellant, witness, juror, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]