suit
    n 1: a set of garments (usually including a jacket and trousers
         or skirt) for outerwear all of the same fabric and color;
         "they buried him in his best suit" [syn: suit, suit of
         clothes]
    2: a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law
       whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy; "the family
       brought suit against the landlord" [syn: lawsuit, suit,
       case, cause, causa]
    3: (slang) a businessman dressed in a business suit; "all the
       suits care about is the bottom line"
    4: a man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a
       woman (usually with the hope of marriage); "its was a brief
       and intense courtship" [syn: courtship, wooing,
       courting, suit]
    5: a petition or appeal made to a person of superior status or
       rank
    6: playing card in any of four sets of 13 cards in a pack; each
       set has its own symbol and color; "a flush is five cards in
       the same suit"; "in bridge you must follow suit"; "what suit
       is trumps?"
    v 1: be agreeable or acceptable to; "This suits my needs" [syn:
         suit, accommodate, fit]
    2: be agreeable or acceptable; "This time suits me"
    3: accord or comport with; "This kind of behavior does not suit
       a young woman!" [syn: befit, suit, beseem]
    4: enhance the appearance of; "Mourning becomes Electra"; "This
       behavior doesn't suit you!" [syn: become, suit]

Suit \Suit\ (s[=u]t), n. [OE. suite, F. suite, OF. suite,
   sieute, fr. suivre to follow, OF. sivre; perhaps influenced
   by L. secta. See Sue to follow, and cf. Sect, Suite.]
   1. The act of following or pursuing, as game; pursuit. [Obs.]
      [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 sw[=e]t.
      [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 sw[=e]t.
      [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]

Suit \Suit\, v. i.
   To agree; to accord; to be fitted; to correspond; -- usually
   followed by with or to.
   [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]

Suit \Suit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suited; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Suiting.]
   1. To fit; to adapt; to make proper or suitable; as, to suit
      the action to the word. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   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]

suit
 n.

    1. Ugly and uncomfortable ?business clothing? often worn by non-hackers.
    Invariably worn with a ?tie?, a strangulation device that partially cuts
    off the blood supply to the brain. It is thought that this explains much
    about the behavior of suit-wearers. Compare droid.

    2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a techie or
    hacker. See pointy-haired, burble, management, Stupids, SNAFU
    principle, PHB, and brain-damaged.

suit

   1. Ugly and uncomfortable "business clothing" often worn by
   non-hackers.  Invariably worn with a "tie", a strangulation
   device that partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain.
   It is thought that this explains much about the behaviour of
   suit-wearers.

   2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a
   techie or hacker.

   See loser, burble, management, Stupids, SNAFU
   principle, and brain-damaged.

   [Jargon File]

   (1998-07-01)

SUIT. An action. The word suit in the 25th section of the judiciary act of 
1789, applies to any proceeding in a court of justice, in which the 
plaintiff pursues, in such court, the remedy which the law affords him. An 
application for a prohibition is therefore a suit. 2 Pet. 449. According to 
the code of practice of Louisiana, art. 96, a suit is a real, personal or 
mixed demand, made before a competent judge, by which the parties pray to 
obtain their rights, and a decision of their disputes. In that acceptation, 
the words suit, process and cause, are in that state almost synonymous. Vide 
Secta, and Steph. Pl. 427; 3 Bl. Com. 395; Gilb. C. P. 48; 1 Chit. Pl. 399; 
Wood's Civ. Law, b. 4, c. p. 315; 4 Mass. 263; 18 John. 14; 4 Watts, R. 154; 
3 Story, Const. Sec. 1719. In its most extended sense, the word suit, 
includes not only a civil action, but also a criminal prosecution, as 
indictment, information, and a conviction by a magistrate. Ham. N. P. 270.