1 Often spelled assizes: a session of a court or legislative body. 2The time or place of, or a law enacted by, such a session. 3 A cause of action, especially one relating to the ownership or possession of land. 4 A trial, especially one presided over by an itinerant judge and held in the county assizes that is the location of the land, dispute, or crime in question. 5 The jury at such a trial. general assize. The action, or the trial or jury in an action, to determine the ownership of land. ...