The Collaborative International Dictionary
Conscript \Con"script\, a. [L. conscriptus, p. p. of conscribere to write together, to enroll; con- + scribere to write. See Scribe.] Enrolled; written; registered.
Conscript fathers (Rom. Antiq.), the senators of ancient Rome. When certain new senators were first enrolled with the ``fathers'' the body was called Patres et Conscripti; afterward all were called Patres conscripti.
Usage examples of "conscript fathers".
And when the chief senators had read certain of the causes why this or that rite was instituted, the senate assented to the dead Numa, and the conscript fathers, as though concerned for the interests of religion, ordered the praetor to burn the books.
The conscript Fathers, the assassins of patriots at Nancy, the Champ de Mars and in the Tuileries, etc.
After the revival of the senate, ^43 the conscript fathers (if I may use the expression) were invested with the legislative and executive power.
But the severity of the conscript fathers was stained by the indiscriminate punishment of the innocent and the guilty: Martina and Heracleonas were sentenced to the amputation, the former of her tongue, the latter of his nose.
Whisky on a sideboard was occasionally attended to by the Conscript Fathers, who had, most of them, voted for its prohibition to every American.