GOWN

5 definitions found across Law Mind sources

GOWNAuthored
The Law Mind • 840 words
Definition
A gown is the formal robe worn by judges, barristers, and other legal officers as part of court dress. In legal contexts, the term carries two related but distinct uses: 1. As a physical garment: The black robe worn by judges on the bench or by barristers appearing in court, functioning as a uniform that signals the wearer's role and standing within formal legal proceedings. 2. As a metonym for a professional class: "Gown" is used collectively to refer to barristers or the legal profession broadly, in the same way "the bench" refers to judges. A barrister may be said to have "taken gown" upon being called to the bar, and references to "gown and wig" denote the full formal dress of the English and Commonwealth bar.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A loose, flowing upper garment; the official robe of certain professionals, clerics, and scholars, such as university students, barristers, and judges; also the dress of civil officers in distinction from military dress. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A loose, flowing upper garment; the official robe of professional men and scholars, including university officers, barristers, and judges; the dress of peace and civil life, as distinguished from military dress. The common and legal meanings are close, but the legal usage adds a layer of professional identity that common usage does not fully capture. In legal contexts, "gown" is not merely descriptive of clothing — it functions as a marker of standing and jurisdiction. A barrister who is "in gown" is formally appearing as an advocate; the garment signals authorization to speak before the court. This professional-symbolic dimension is absent from ordinary usage.
Common Confusion
In American legal practice, "gown" refers almost exclusively to the judge's robe, since American attorneys do not wear gowns in court. British and Commonwealth researchers should be careful not to carry American assumptions into historical English sources, where "gown" most commonly denotes the barrister's dress and its associated professional identity, not the judge's garment specifically.
Why It Matters in Research
The term "gown" appears in historical legal texts primarily as a marker of professional status in the English and Commonwealth tradition, not as a substantive legal concept. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should treat "gown" as a signal of jurisdictional and professional context rather than a term with doctrinal content. In historical English sources, references to "gown" often encode distinctions between barristers (who wear gown and wig) and solicitors (who historically did not appear in higher courts and did not wear gowns). This distinction between the two branches of the English legal profession is relevant when reading 18th and 19th century case reports, treatise passages, and parliamentary materials — "gown" implicitly identifies the speaker or actor as a barrister, not merely any lawyer. The metonymic use — "gown" standing for the legal profession or the bar collectively — appears in political and literary texts of the 17th through 19th centuries and may require recognition to avoid misreading passages that appear to be about clothing but are actually about professional or civic authority. The phrase "gown versus sword" (or "gown and sword") is a recurrent trope in early modern European political writing distinguishing civil from military power. Anderson's Dictionary of Law does not address "gown" as a legal term — the source material retrieved under this entry concerns governmental powers, indicating either a cataloging anomaly or that Anderson treated "gown" as too colloquial or self-evident for independent treatment. This absence is itself informative: 19th-century American legal dictionaries largely ignored court dress as a legal concept, reflecting the American departure from English robing traditions for advocates.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's Dictionary of Law does not contain a substantive entry for "gown" as a legal term. The retrieved content pertains to governmental classification, not court dress. This is consistent with the broader pattern in American legal lexicography: terms like "gown" that encode English professional distinctions were not adopted as operative legal vocabulary in the United States and therefore received little or no treatment in American legal dictionaries of the 19th century. English legal dictionaries and bar histories are the more productive sources for the professional and symbolic dimensions of the term. Researchers should consult sources in the English Inns of Court tradition for the rules and customs governing when and how gowns were worn, and what forfeiture or modification of gown rights signified.
Jurisdictional Note
Court dress requirements, including the wearing of gowns by judges and barristers, remain active in England and Wales, Scotland, and many Commonwealth jurisdictions, though reforms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries relaxed requirements in some civil proceedings. In the United States, gowns are worn by judges but not by attorneys, and no rule of professional dress equivalent to the English robing tradition governs American advocates.
Related Terms
BAR (professional body) | BARRISTER | BENCH | COURT DRESS | INNS OF COURT | ROBE | SILK (Queen's/King's Counsel) | UTTER BARRISTER | WIG
GOWNmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
Federal, General, National, United States Government; States governments. In the United States, powers of government are of four classes: (1) Those which belong exclusively to the States. (2) Those which belong exclusively to the National Government. (3) Those which may be exercised concurrently and independently by both. (4) Those which may be exercised by the States, but only until Congress shall see fit to act upon the subject.1 When the government of the United States was formed, some of the attributes of State sovereignty were partially, and others wholly, surrendered and vested in the United States. The special powers delegated to it are principally such as concern the foreign relations of the country, the rights of war and peace, the regulation of foreign and domestic commerce, and other subjects of general importance. Its peculiar duty is to protect one part of the country from encroachments by another upon the national rights which belong to all. Its authority extends over the whole territory of the Union; it acts upon the States and the people of the States. It is, so far as its sovereignty extends, supreme. No State can exclude it from exercising its powers, obstruct its authorized officers against its will, or withhold cognizance of any subject which the Constitution has committed to it,- otherwise it would cease to exist. Congress may make all laws necessary (q. v.) and proper for carrying into execution the powers delegated to it. The powers not delegated, nor prohibited to the States, in the Constitution, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Every addition to its power is a corresponding diminution of the powers of the States." The rights of each sovereignty are to be equally respected. Both are essential to the preservation of our liberties and the perpetuity of our institutions.8 See CONSTITUTION. The departments of government are the legislative, which deals mainly with the future; the executive, which deals with the present; and the judicial, which is retrospective, dealing with acts done or threatened, promises made, and injuries suffered. The theory of government, State and National, is 1 Chicago, &c. R. Co. v. Fuller, 17 Wall. 568 (1873), Swayne, J.; 100 U. S. 386, 390. United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 549 (1875); Tennessee v. Davis, 100 id. 263 (1879); Tarble's Case, 13 Wall. 456 (1871). 1 Sharswood, Bl. Com. 49. Pensacola Telegraph Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 96 U. S. 10 (1877). • Constitution, Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 18. • Constitution, Amd. Art. X. Exp. Virginia, 100 U. S. 346 (1879). • Exp. Siebold, 100 U. S. 394 (1879). See Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 46 (1825); 21 Am. Law Rev. 399-417 (1887), cases; 1 Law Quar. Rev. 80-99 (1885); 4 R. I. 324; 11 Pa. 489; 29 Mich. 451; 58 N. H. 453. opposed to the deposit of unlimited power anywhere.1 The Constitution reposes unlimited power in no department of the National government. The lines of separation are to be closely followed to avoid encroachment.2 A co-ordinate branch will be decided to have transcended its powers only when that is so plain that the duty cannot be avoided. See DEPARTMENT. The power of governing being a trust committed by the people to the government, no part of the power can be granted away, as, the power to tax. The several agencies can govern according to their discretion, but cannot give away or sell the discretion of their successors. 4 Republican form of government. See REPUBLIC, Republican, etc. See further ALLEGIANCE; ANARCHY; APPRAISER; CITIZEN; COURT; DOMAIN; ELECTION, 1; FAITH, Full, etc.; FRANCHISE; GIFT, 1; INDEPENDENCE; INDIAN; JUDICIARY; JURISDICTION; KING; LACHES; LAW, Common; LEGISLATION; LIBERTY, 1; LIMITATIONS, Statute of; MAGNA CHARTA; MAY; MINISTER, 3; OFFICE; PEOPLE; POLICE, 2; POLICY, 1; PRIVILEGE, 1; RELIGION; REVENUE; SEDITION; SERVICE, 3; SOVEREIGNTY; STATE, 3; SUIT; TAX, 2; TORT; TREASON. 1. That worn by the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States has always been a long robe of black silk. A portrait of the first chief justice, John Jay, represents him in a borrowed robe, with broad scarlet facings and collar and sleeves of the same color. This gave rise to the tradition that the justices wore red gowns in the early days of the court. In the higher tribunals of the States, scarlet gowns were worn, in some instances, as late as 1815.5 2. In England, the silk gown is the professional robe worn by those barristers who have been appointed of the number of her Majesty's counsel, and is the distinctive badge of Queen's counsel, as the stuff gown is of the juniors who have not obtained that dignity. Accordingly, when a barrister is raised to the degree of Queen's counsel, he is said to "get a silk gown." The right to confer this dignity resides with the Lord Chancellor, who disposes of this branch of his patronage according to the talents, the practice, the seniority, and the general merits of the junior counsel. "The rules as to the robes worn by British judges have been transmitted orally. Scarlet is the color for the judges sitting in banc on the first day of the term; also in banc on such days as appear with red letters in 1 Loan Association v. Topeka, 20 Wall. 663 (1874). 2 Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U. S. 190 (1880). 3 Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U. S. 96 (1879). Stone v. Mississippi, 101 U. S. 820 (1879). See The Century, Dec. 1882. See 5 Alb. Law J 225 (1872); Jeaffreson, Courts & Lawyers, 180; Brown, Law Dict.
GOWNn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A loose, flowing upper garment; especially: The ordinary outer dress of a woman; as, a calico or silk gown. The official robe of certain professional men and scholars, as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc.; hence, the dress of peace; the dress of civil officers, in distinction from military. He Mars deposed, and arms to gowns made yield. Dryden. A loose wrapper worn by gentlemen within doors; a dressing gown. Any sort of dress or garb. He comes . . . in the gown of humility. Shak.
gownnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A loose, flowing upper garment. | A woman's ordinary outer dress, such as a calico or silk gown. | The official robe of certain professionals, clerics, and scholars, such as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc. | The official robe of certain professionals, clerics, and scholars, such as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc. | The dress of civil officers, as opposed to military officers. | The university community, especially as contrasted with the local populace. | A loose wrapper worn by gentlemen within doors; a dressing gown. | Any sort of dress or garb. | The robe worn by a surgeon.
gownverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
To dress in a gown, to don or garb with a gown.

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