session

Less common meanings

5. 5
   play music togetherverbintransitive

   To take part in an informal, improvised performance with other musicians.

   Traveling with her fiddle through the west of Ireland, she would session in a different pub almost every night.

   The visiting accordion player sessioned with the regulars until closing time, picking up reels he had never heard before.

   Similarjam

   Note

   The verb conjugates regularly: sessions, sessioning, sessioned. It is usually used without an object, of musicians playing together. A musician quoted by Virginia Heffernan in the New York Times in 2009 mentions a drummer "who has sessioned on all kinds of records". That use stretches the verb toward the work of a hired studio player, with on naming the recordings involved. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Virginia Heffernan's New York Times article containing the quotation appeared in 2009. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation contains the exact words supplied. en.wiktionary.org
   • The speaker was a musician, Kutiman, discussing drummer Bernard Purdie. wired.com
6. 6
   school termnouncountable

   An academic term or semester, or the school year as a whole.

   The university admits new students at the start of each session.

   Final exams fall at the end of the spring session.

   Similarterm, semester, quarter

   Note

   Academic calendars use the word loosely. A session can be a single term or semester, or it can be the whole school year. Qualifiers such as spring session or summer session usually narrow it down. When the span matters, check which division is meant rather than assuming it equals a semester.

7. 7
   cricketnouncountable

   Any of the three scheduled two-hour playing periods in a day's cricket, running from the start of play to lunch, from lunch to tea, and from tea to the close of play.

   The bowlers dominated the morning session, taking four wickets.

   Both teams went into the final session evenly matched.

   Note

   Cricket divides its day by meals: lunch and tea are the intervals that cut play into three parts. Commentators name each session by its place in the day, such as the morning session or the final session. They treat each one as a contest of its own, so bowlers can dominate a session even while the match itself remains open. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • In Test cricket, lunch and tea divide the day's play into three main sessions. en.wikipedia.org
   • Bowlers can dominate a period of play while the match remains undecided. bcci.tv
8. 8
   drinkingnouncolloquialUKIrelandcountable

   An extended period of drinking alcohol, usually with others.

   Friends gathered for an afternoon session at the brewery.

   He paced himself through the long session by sticking to weaker beer.

   UsageOften a long session or a session at the pub.

   Similarbooze-up, spree

   Note

   Among beer drinkers, length is the point. A session is drinking spread across many hours, usually in company, and session beer, a weaker beer that lets people keep going, takes its name from it. It is a casual, social word for an afternoon at a brewery or a long evening with friends. It names the occasion and its length, though a long session usually means a good deal of drinking. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Session beer has lower alcohol content, making it suitable for drinking repeatedly over a session. sierranevada.com
   • The name session beer derives from a session of drinking beer. allagash.com
9. 9
   noun

   The sitting of a person, or the fact of being in a seated position.

   So much his ascension into heaven and his session at the right hand of God do import.

   1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

   Note

   The literal Latin "sitting" kept a foothold in theology. Richard Hooker, in the 1590s, writes of Christ's ascension and "his session at the right hand of God", and that phrase is where the sense mostly survives. Tennyson could still use it of a body in 1859, when Vivien "leapt from her session on his lap". Outside such solemn or poetic contexts, a modern reader will hear it as archaic. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Session derives ultimately from Latin sessiō, meaning a sitting. en.wiktionary.org
   • Richard Hooker uses the quoted phrase while discussing Christ's ascension. merecatholicity.com
   • Hooker's passage appeared in the 1590s: Book V of Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity was first published in 1597. en.wikipedia.org
   • Tennyson describes Vivien rising from her seated position on Merlin's lap using the quoted words. en.wikisource.org
   • Tennyson's Vivien was first published in 1859. en.wikipedia.org
10. 10
    noun

    The ruling body of a Presbyterian congregation, made up of the pastor and the elders.