articles

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of article.

   The magazine published several articles about climate change last spring.

   Customs officers inspected the articles packed in his luggage.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. The -s that makes the plural also marks the verb's present tense, so "the articles" and "she articles" look identical. In legal writing the plural can mean more than several. A document's sections, taken together, stand for the whole document, as with a set of bylaws. Context, not form, tells a reader which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of article.

   The senior partner articles every recruit before they handle real cases.

   The practice articles its trainees under a formal apprenticeship agreement.

   Note

   The verb's familiar shape is the passive "articled to a firm," as in the training period. This present-tense form instead needs an active subject who does the binding. It is transitive: someone articles a trainee, binding them by articles of apprenticeship. It can also mean to set something forth in distinct particulars. An older meaning, to accuse by setting out charges, is obsolete.

3. 3
   noun

   The period during which someone works as an articled clerk, training in a law firm before qualifying.

   After law school, she completed her articles at a corporate firm in the city.

   His articles gave him two years of hands-on legal experience.

   Similartraineeship, apprenticeship, clerkship

   Note

   Here the plural names a stretch of time: someone serves or completes their articles, and at the end the articles expire. It pairs with the binding verb, since a trainee is articled to a firm. The Railway Magazine of 1948 describes a man articled to a surveyor and land agent in 1885 who became a partner when his articles ended. "Articling" names the same period.

4. 4
   nounslang

   A man's clothing taken together, especially breeches with a coat and waistcoat.

   He pawned his only good articles to cover the week's rent.

   The valet laid out his master's articles for the morning.

   Similarclothes, garments, togs, duds

   Note

   Slang that treats a man's outfit as one item: breeches, or the coat and waistcoat worn with them. Because the ordinary plural can mean any objects at all, a listener may hear only "things." The slang reading needs a setting of dress, pawning or valeting to come through. In plain prose, "clothes" says it without the ambiguity.

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