Definition of "summons" []

• A call by an authority to appear, come, or do something. (noun)
• Law A notice summoning a defendant to appear in court. (noun)
• Law A notice summoning a person to report to court as a juror or witness. (noun)
• Law To serve a court summons to. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But in some ways the phrase summons what has happened in architecture since 9/11."
• "When the legislature confers on a police officer the same power to deprive an individual of his liberty by arrest with or without a warrant, with all the attendant circumstances, for a trivial offence warranting a fine of a few dollars as it does in the case of robbery or murder, or to arrest when a summons is all that is required, it alienates the public support for law and law enforcement and undermines the authority of all law."
• "A second messenger interrupted with imperative summons from the council."