Inn \Inn\, n. [AS. in, inn, house, chamber, inn, from AS. in in;
akin to Icel. inni house. See In.]
1. A place of shelter; hence, dwelling; habitation;
residence; abode. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.
Therefore with me ye may take up your inn For this
same night. --Spenser.
2. A house for the lodging and entertainment of travelers or
wayfarers; a tavern; a public house; a hotel.
Note: As distinguished from a private boarding house, an inn
is a house for the entertainment of all travelers of
good conduct and means of payment,as guests for a brief
period,not as lodgers or boarders by contract.
The miserable fare and miserable lodgment of a
provincial inn. --W. Irving.
3. The town residence of a nobleman or distinguished person;
as, Leicester Inn. [Eng.]
4. One of the colleges (societies or buildings) in London,
for students of the law barristers; as, the Inns of Court;
the Inns of Chancery; Serjeants' Inns.
Inns of chancery (Eng.), colleges in which young students
formerly began their law studies, now occupied chiefly by
attorneys, solicitors, etc.
Inns of court (Eng.), the four societies of ``students and
practicers of the law of England'' which in London
exercise the exclusive right of admitting persons to
practice at the bar; also, the buildings in which the law
students and barristers have their chambers. They are the
Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's
Inn.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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