| • | An assembly or council having the highest deliberative and
   legislative functions. | 
											
															| • | A body of elders appointed or elected from among the nobles
   of the nation, and having supreme legislative authority. | 
											
															| • | The upper and less numerous branch of a legislature in
   various countries, as in France, in the United States, in most of the
   separate States of the United States, and in some Swiss cantons. | 
											
															| • | In general, a legislative body; a state council; the
   legislative department of government. | 
											
															| • | The governing body of the Universities of Cambridge and
   London. | 
											
															| • | In some American colleges, a council of elected students,
   presided over by the president of the college, to which are referred
   cases of discipline and matters of general concern affecting the
   students. |