by the students in the English
universities, is now seldom worn in American colleges except on
Commencement, Exhibition, or other days of a similar public
character.

The students are permitted to wear black _gowns_, in which they
may appear on all public occasions.--_Laws Harv. Coll._, 1798, p.
37.

Every candidate for a first degree shall wear a black dress and
the usual black _gown_.--_Laws Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, p. 20.

The performers all wore black _gowns_ with sleeves large enough to
hold me in, and shouted and swung their arms, till they looked
like so many Methodist ministers just ordained.--_Harvardiana_,
Vol. III. p. 111.

Saw them ... clothed in _gowns_ of satin,
Or silk or cotton, black as souls benighted.--
All, save the _gowns_, was startling, splendid, tragic,
But gowns on men have lost their wonted magic.
_Childe Harvard_, p. 26.

The door swings open--and--he comes! behold him
Wrapt in his mantling _gown_, that round him flows
Waving, as Caesar's toga did enfold him.--_Ibid._, p. 36.

On Saturday evenings, Sundays, and Saints' days, the students wear
surplices instead of their _gowns_, and very innocent and
exemplary they look in them.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.
Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 21.

2. One who wears a gown.

And here, I think, I may properly introduce a very singular
gallant, a sort of mongrel between town and _gown_,--I mean a
bibliopola, or (as the vulgar have it) a bookseller.--_The
Student_, Oxf. and Cam., Vol. II. p. 226.

GOWNMAN, GOWNSMAN. One whose professional habit is a gown, as a
divine or lawyer, and particularly a member of an English
university.--_Webster_.

The _gownman_ learned.--_Pope_.

Oft has some fair inquirer bid me say,
What tasks, what sports beguile the _gownsman's_ day.
_The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

For if townsmen by our influence are so enlightened, what must we
_gownsmen_ be ourselves?--_The Student_, Oxf. and Cam., Vol. I. p.
56.

Nor must it be supposed that the _gownsmen_ are thin, study-worn,
consumptive-looking individuals.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng.
Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 5.

See CAP.

GRACE. In English universities, an act, vote, or decree of the
government of the institution.--_Webster_.

"All _Graces_ (as the legislative measures proposed by the Senate
are termed) have to be submitted first to the Caput, each member
of which has an absolute veto on the grace. If it