convention

Conventions are added meanings of bridge bids which convey information about the hand of the bidding player. These conventions allow players a rough idea of what cards other players have, and often allow a partnership to bid exactly the number of tricks they will take.

See Standard American Yellow Card.

A gathering of people with similar interests or goals. I've been to science fiction/fantasy conventions and cognitive science conventions and I have to say that the former are a lot more fun.

At cognitive science conventions, people give talks about cognition all day long and then mingle with one another at night to try to catch up with colleagues and network. I suspect that there is also a lot of trying to get laid going on, but it's all beneath the surface.

At science fiction/fantasy conventions, some people hold panel discussions about various topics related (sometimes only tangentially) to SF, some people watch anime, and some people just hang out in the con suite. There's usually a masquerade and a dance and room parties. The attempts to get laid are much more overt. Men tend to outnumber women substantially which can be a pain in the ass for the women.

There are lots of other kinds of conventions too, I just haven't been to any of them.

Conventions are the accepted, or perhaps de facto rules of behavior in any given situation.
Conventions are in the form of rfcs for internet protocols. Deviation from these conventions breaks things.
When a conviction is formalized, as is the case with RFCs, it usually becomes known as a standard.

Con*ven"tion (?), n. [L. conventio: cf. F. convention. See Convene, v. i.]

1.

The act of coming together; the state of being together; union; coalition.

The conventions or associations of several particles of matter into bodies of any certain denomination. Boyle.

2.

General agreement or concurrence; arbitrary custom; usage; conventionality.

There are thousands now Such women, but convention beats them down. Tennyson.

3.

A meeting or an assembly of persons, esp. of delegates or representatives, to accomplish some specific object, -- civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical.

He set himself to the making of good laws in a grand convention of his nobles. Sir R. Baker.

A convention of delegates from all the States, to meet in Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of reserving the federal system, and correcting its defects. W. Irving.

4. Eng. Hist

An extraordinary assembly of the parkiament or estates of the realm, held without the king's writ, -- as the assembly which restored Charles II. to the throne, and that which declared the throne to be abdicated by James II.

Our gratitude is due . . . to the Long Parliament, to the Convention, and to William of Orange. Macaulay.

5.

An agreement or contract less formal than, or preliminary to, a traety; an informal compact, as between commanders of armies in respect to suspension of hostilities, or between states; also, a formal agreement between governments or sovereign powers; as, a postal convetion between two governments.

This convention, I think from my soul, is nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy; a truce without a suspension of hostilities. Ld. Chatham.

The convention with the State of georgia has been ratified by their Legislature. T. Jefferson.

 

© Webster 1913.