jury

Pluraljuries

Formsjuries, jurying, juried

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A group of people chosen from the public to hear the evidence in a court case and decide the verdict.

   The jury deliberated for several hours before reaching a unanimous verdict.

   In criminal trials, juries must agree beyond reasonable doubt before convicting.

   Similarpanel

   Note

   Behind the courtroom word is an oath. Middle English jure came through Anglo-Norman juree and Medieval Latin iūrāta from Latin iūrō, "I swear," so a jury is at root a sworn body. Its standard is the jury's own conviction: the prosecution must prove its case "to the jury's satisfaction," as James Avery Joyce puts it in Justice At Work (1952).

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A group of judges who evaluate the entries in a competition and decide the winners or award the prizes.

   The film festival jury awarded the top prize to a first-time director.

   Competition juries often disagree sharply before settling on a single winner.

   Similarpanel

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To evaluate and select entries for a show or competition by means of a panel of judges.

   Curators jury the submissions, accepting only a fraction for the gallery wall.

   Each year a committee juries thousands of photographs for the exhibition.

   Similarjudge, adjudicate, assess, vet

   Note

   The verb is regular: juries, jurying, juried. Its past participle does most of the work, standing as an adjective in phrases like a juried exhibition or a juried show. Such a show is one whose entries were chosen by a panel rather than accepted by right. The panel here is a competition's judges, not a courtroom.

4. 4
   adjective

   Makeshift and meant only for temporary use, as a rough contrivance improvised to serve until a proper replacement can be made.

   The crew steered by a jury rudder for the last hundred miles.

   A jury rig kept the dinghy moving after its boom broke.

   Similarmakeshift, improvised, temporary, stopgap

   Oppositepermanent

   Note

   A sailor's word that only looks like the courtroom one. It appeared in the early 1600s from an uncertain source: perhaps Old French ajurie, from Latin adiūtō, or perhaps a Frankish word meaning "ready." It stands only before a noun, as in jury mast or jury rudder, and it takes no degrees. Nothing is more jury than something else.

5. 5
   nounslangcountable

   The first-night audience whose reaction at a premiere may decide whether the production succeeds or fails.

   The producers held their breath, waiting to see how the jury responded to the premiere.

   A cold jury on opening night can doom even a well-rehearsed play.

   Similaraudience, house, crowd

   Note

   Theater slang borrows the courtroom jury wholesale: on opening night the audience delivers a verdict, and the production lives or dies by it. The image is old. The New Monthly Magazine in 1828 already has the jury "which decides on the first night" sealing "the fate of the season." Outside theater talk the usage can puzzle readers, so plain "first-night audience" is safer in general writing.

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