HALL, n. L. aula Heb. a tent, a palace.
1. In architecture, a large room at the entrance of a house or palace. In the houses of ministers of state, magistrates, &c.,it is the place where they give audience and dispatch business.
2. An edifice in which courts of justice are held as Westminster Hall, which was originally a royal palace,the kings of England formerly holding their parliaments and courts of judicature in their own dwellings, as is still the practice in Spain.
3. A manor-house, in which courts were formerly held.
4. A college, or large edifice belonging to a collegiate institution.
5. A room for a corporation or public assembly as a town-hall Fanueil Hall in Boston, &c.
6. A collegiate body in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.