Inn (?), 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. 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.
☞ 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.
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 by attorneys, solicitors, 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.