n. (Law) A assister. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. consistorial. ] Of or pertaining to a consistory. “Consistorial laws.” Hooker. “Consistorial courts.” Bp. Hoadley. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to a Presbyterian consistory; -- a contemptuous term of 17th century controversy. [ 1913 Webster ]

You fall next on the consistorian schismatics; for so you call Presbyterians. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

pos>n.; pl. Consistories [ L. consistorium a place of assembly, the place where the emperor's council met, fr. consistere: cf. F. consistoire, It. consistorio. See Consist. ] 1. Primarily, a place of standing or staying together; hence, any solemn assembly or council. [ 1913 Webster ]

To council summons all his mighty peers,
Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,
A gloomy consistory. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Eng. Ch.) The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere. Hook. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (R. C. Ch.) An assembly of prelates; a session of the college of cardinals at Rome. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pius was then hearing of causes in consistory. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A church tribunal or governing body. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In some churches, as the Dutch Reformed in America, a consistory is composed of the minister and elders of an individual church, corresponding to a Presbyterian church session, and in others, as the Reformed church in France, it is composed of ministers and elders, corresponding to a presbytery. In some Lutheran countries it is a body of clerical and lay officers appointed by the sovereign to superintend ecclesiastical affairs. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A civil court of justice. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of the nature of, or pertaining to, a consistory. “To hold consistory session.” Strype. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ transfer + resistor, from its ability to tranfer a current across a resistor. ] (Electronics) a component used in electronic devices consisting of three regions of at least two types of a semiconducting material, such as doped silicon, connected to each other and to three electrodes in a conducting path so as to modify the current or voltage in an electronic circuit. Transistors are used in almost all modern electronic devices, having replaced the vacuum tube in most applications. Since they are based on the electronic characteristics of solids, they are called solid-state devices. Typically a transistor is composed of p, n, and p-type semiconductors in series, or of n, p, and n, with the center region being a thin layer between the two outer regions. An electronic signal input to the central layer may be substantially amplified by such a device. In integrated circuits, many thousands of transistors may be etched into a single small wafer of silicon. [ PJC ]