School, n. [OE. scole, AS.
sc?lu, L. schola, Gr. ? leisure, that in which
leisure is employed, disputation, lecture, a school, probably from the
same root as ?, the original sense being perhaps, a stopping, a
resting. See Scheme.] 1. A place for
learned intercourse and instruction; an institution for learning; an
educational establishment; a place for acquiring knowledge and mental
training; as, the school of the prophets.
Disputing daily in the school of one
Tyrannus.
Acts xix. 9.
2. A place of primary instruction; an
establishment for the instruction of children; as, a primary
school; a common school; a grammar
school.
As he sat in the school at his
primer.
Chaucer.
3. A session of an institution of
instruction.
How now, Sir Hugh! No school to-
day?
Shak.
4. One of the seminaries for teaching logic,
metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and
which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of
reasoning.
At Cambridge the philosophy of Descartes was still
dominant in the schools.
Macaulay.
5. The room or hall in English universities
where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.
6. An assemblage of scholars; those who attend
upon instruction in a school of any kind; a body of pupils.
What is the great community of Christians, but one of
the innumerable schools in the vast plan which God has
instituted for the education of various intelligences?
Buckminster.
7. The disciples or followers of a teacher;
those who hold a common doctrine, or accept the same teachings; a sect
or denomination in philosophy, theology, science, medicine, politics,
etc.
Let no man be less confident in his faith . . . by
reason of any difference in the several schools of
Christians.
Jer. Taylor.
8. The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or
practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age;
as, he was a gentleman of the old school.
His face pale but striking, though not handsome after
the schools.
A. S. Hardy.
9. Figuratively, any means of knowledge or
discipline; as, the school of experience.
Boarding school, Common school,
District school, Normal school,
etc. See under Boarding, Common, District,
etc. -- High school, a free public school
nearest the rank of a college. [U. S.] -- School
board, a corporation established by law in every borough
or parish in England, and elected by the burgesses or ratepayers, with
the duty of providing public school accommodation for all children in
their district. -- School committee,
School board, an elected committee of citizens
having charge and care of the public schools in any district, town, or
city, and responsible for control of the money appropriated for school
purposes. [U. S.] -- School days, the
period in which youth are sent to school. -- School
district, a division of a town or city for establishing
and conducting schools. [U.S.] -- Sunday
school, or Sabbath school, a
school held on Sunday for study of the Bible and for religious
instruction; the pupils, or the teachers and pupils, of such a school,
collectively.