What is "inns of court"

Inn \Inn\ ([i^]n), n. [AS. in, inn, house, chamber, inn, from AS. in in; akin to Icel. inni house. See In.]

1. A place of shelter; hence, dwelling; habitation; residence; abode. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

   Therefore with me ye may take up your inn For this same night.
   --Spenser.

2. A house for the lodging and entertainment of travelers or wayfarers; a tavern; a public house; a hotel.

   Note: As distinguished from a private boarding house, an inn is a house for the entertainment of all travelers of good conduct and means of payment, as guests for a brief period, not as lodgers or boarders by contract.

   The miserable fare and miserable lodgment of a provincial inn.
   --W. Irving.

3. The town residence of a nobleman or distinguished person; as, Leicester Inn. [Eng.]

4. One of the colleges (societies or buildings) in London, for students of the law barristers; as, the Inns of Court; the Inns of Chancery; Serjeants' Inns.

   Inns of chancery (Eng.), colleges in which young students formerly began their law studies, now occupied chiefly bp attorn`ys, solocitors, etc.

   Inns of court (Eng.), the four societies of ``students and practicers of the law of England'' which in London exercise the exclusive right of admitting persons to practice at the bar; also, the buildings in which the law students and barristers have their chambers. They are the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn.

The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. All such barristers must belong to one such association. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional accommodation. Each also has a church or chapel attached to it and is a self-contained precinct where barristers traditionally train and practise, although growth in the legal profession, together with a desire to practise from more modern accommodations, caused many barristers' chambers to move outside the precincts of the Inns of Court in the late 20th century.