The Collaborative International Dictionary
Assent \As*sent"\, n. [OE. assent, fr. assentir. See Assent, v.] The act of assenting; the act of the mind in admitting or agreeing to anything; concurrence with approval; consent; agreement; acquiescence.
Faith is the assent to any proposition, on the credit
of the proposer.
--Locke.
The assent, if not the approbation, of the prince.
--Prescott.
Too many people read this ribaldry with assent and
admiration.
--Macaulay.
Royal assent, in England, the assent of the sovereign to a bill which has passed both houses of Parliament, after which it becomes law.
Syn: Concurrence; acquiescence; approval; accord.
Usage: Assent, Consent. Assent is an act of the understanding, consent of the will or feelings. We assent to the views of others when our minds come to the same conclusion with theirs as to what is true, right, or admissible. We consent when there is such a concurrence of our will with their desires and wishes that we decide to comply with their requests. The king of England gives his assent, not his consent, to acts of Parliament, because, in theory at least, he is not governed by personal feelings or choice, but by a deliberate, judgment as to the common good. We also use assent in cases where a proposal is made which involves but little interest or feeling. A lady may assent to a gentleman's opening the window; but if he offers himself in marriage, he must wait for her consent.
Wiktionary
n. The method by which a constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law.
Wikipedia
Royal assent is the method by which a country's constitutional monarch (possibly through a delegated official) formally approves an act of that nation's parliament, thus making it a law or letting it be promulgated as law. In the vast majority of contemporary monarchies, this act is considered to be little more than a formality; even in those nations which still permit their ruler to withhold the royal assent (such as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Liechtenstein), the monarch almost never does so, save in a dire political emergency or upon the advice of their government. While the power to withhold royal assent was once exercised often in European monarchies, it is exceedingly rare in the modern, democratic political atmosphere that has developed there since the 18th century.
Royal assent is sometimes associated with elaborate ceremonies. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the sovereign may appear personally in the House of Lords or may appoint Lords Commissioners, who announce that royal assent has been granted at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster for this purpose. However, royal assent is usually granted less ceremonially by letters patent. In other nations, such as Australia, the Governor-General merely signs the bill. In Canada, the Governor-General may give assent either in person at a ceremony held in the Senate or by a written declaration notifying parliament of his or her agreement to the bill.
The granting, reserving or withholding of the Royal Assent was one of the key roles, and potentially one of the key powers, possessed by the Governor-General of the Irish Free State. Until it was granted, no bill passed by the Oireachtas (composed of the Dáil and the Seanad) could complete its passage of enactment and become law.
Usage examples of "royal assent".
The very same day on which it passed the Lords, it received the Royal assent, and became the law of the land.
Two days after his arrival, the King and Queen went in person to Parliament to give the royal assent to the Bill reversing his attainder, so that it became law before his arrival in the capital.
Although torture to obtain a confession was not permitted in England except by royal assent, many inquisitors were very cruel even to young victims, who would eventually confess in the hope of having their interrogation brought to an end.