Definition of "party"

if the Jury had found that the party slain had been of English race and nation, it had been adjudged felony

1612, Sir John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued

A mile back in the forest the tribe had heard the fierce challenge of the gorilla, and, as was his custom when any danger threatened, Kerchak called his people together, partly for mutual protection against a common enemy, since this gorilla might be but one of a party of several, and also to see that all members of the tribe were accounted for.

1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co.; republished as chapter 6, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June,

"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. […] A strong man—a strong one; and a heedless." ¶ "Of what party is he?" she inquired, as though casually.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four‎, page 103

In the freer political atmosphere before the 1989 repression, peasant protests against the Party in Henan were sometimes openly discussed. A transcript of a meeting between peasants and cadres in Jili district near Luoyang published in the Peasants’ Daily recorded some vivid complaints.

1996, John Gittings, “Peasants in Revolt”, in Real China: From Cannibalism to Karaoke‎, Pocket Books, published 1997, page 46

[…] the whole party were still standing and talking together very agreeably, when the sound of horses drew their notice, and Darcy and Bingley were seen riding down the street.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], pages 163–164

When the line was being surveyed in 1880, the survey party, proceeding along the course of Stock Creek, reached a natural amphitheatre with a rock wall 200 ft. high, in the face of which there was an arched tunnel entrance, [...] into which the stream passed.

1944 May and June, “Nature Provides a Railway Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 132

A party of mynas, consisting of several males and females, once selected the top of a low terraced roof, just below my verandah, as a site for courting and quarrelling.

1903, D.D. Cunningham, Some Indian Friends and Acquaintances, London: John Murray, page 28

Small parties and flocks close to breeding sites commonly give shrill, high-pitched, trilling screams.

2009, Mark Brazil, The Birds of East Asia, London: Christopher Helm, page 272

And so the moost party of the castel that was falle doune thorugh that dolorous stroke laye vpon Pellam and balyn thre dayes.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book II, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889,

“Miss, do you party?” the boy asked. “What?” Jennifer asked back. “Do you smoke? I'll get you some cheap. One American dollar equals forty Jamaican dollars. I'll get you as much of the stuff as you need.”

2004, Daniel Nicholas Shields, Firewoman

Now converging, now diverging, these fences presented a striking irregularity of contour. No fence was party, nor any part of any fence.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press