(pär′lə·mənt) noun
A meeting or assembly for consultation and deliberation; a legislative body; a national legislature, especially when composed of various estates. Also Obs. par′le·ment. [<OF parlement speaking <parler speak <LL parabolare <parabola. See PARABLE.]

(pär′lə·mənt) noun
1. The supreme legislature of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, composed of the three estates of the realm
—the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons
—together with, in a strict legal sense, the sovereign.
2. The legislature in any of Great Britain's self–governing colonies or dominions.
3. In France, before the French Revolution, one of several tribunals of justice.
4. The legislative assembly of Scotland until 1707, or that of Ireland until 1800.
—Long Parliament The British Parliament which first assembled in 1640 and finally dissolved by its own consent in 1660: after the enforced expulsion (Pride's Purge) of some of its members in 1648, it was known as the Rump Parliament.