HALL, noun [Latin aula; Heb. a tent, a palace.]

1. In architecture, a large room at the entrance of a house or palace. In the houses of ministers of state, magistrates, etc., it is the place where they give audience and dispatch business.

2. An edifice in which courts of justice are held; as Westminster hall which was originally a royal palace, the kings of England formerly holding their parliaments and courts of judicature in their own dwellings, as is still the practice in Spain.

3. A manor-house, in which courts were formerly held.

4. A college, or large edifice belonging to a collegiate institution.

5. A room for a corporation or public assembly; as a town-hall; Fanueil hall in Boston, etc.

6. A collegiate body in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.