Session

noun
1.
the sitting together of a court, council, legislature, or the like, for conference or the transaction of business:
Congress is now in session.
2.
a single continuous sitting, or period of sitting, of persons so assembled.
3.
a continuous series of sittings or meetings of a court, legislature, or the like.
4.
the period or term during which such a series is held.
5.
sessions, (in English law) the sittings or a sitting of justices in court, usually to deal with minor offenses, grant licenses, etc.
6.
a single continuous course or period of lessons, study, etc., in the work of a day at school:
two afternoon sessions a week.
7.
a portion of the year into which instruction is organized at a college or other educational institution.
8.
the governing body of a local Presbyterian church, composed of the pastor who moderates and the elders.
9.
a period of time during which a group of persons meets to pursue a particular activity:
A few of the kids got together for a study session.
noun
1.
the meeting of a court, legislature, judicial body, etc, for the execution of its function or the transaction of business
2.
a single continuous meeting of such a body
3.
a series or period of such meetings
4.
(education)

the time during which classes are held
a school or university term or year

5.
(Presbyterian Church) the judicial and administrative body presiding over a local congregation and consisting of the minister and elders
6.
a meeting of a group of musicians to record in a studio
7.
a meeting of a group of people to pursue an activity
8.
any period devoted to an activity
9.
See Court of Session
session

networking
1. A lasting connection between a user (or user agent) and a peer, typically a server, usually involving the exchange of many packets between the user’s computer and the server. A session is typically implemented as a layer in a network protocol (e.g. telnet, FTP).
In the case of protocols where there is no concept of a session layer (e.g. UDP) or where sessions at the session layer are generally very short-lived (e.g. HTTP), virtual sessions are implemented by having each exchange between the user and the remote host include some form of cookie which stores state (e.g. a unique session ID, information about the user’s preferences or authorisation level, etc.).
See also login.
2. A lasting connection using the session layer of a networking protocol.
(1997-08-03)
see: bull session