Definition of: counsel

(koun′səl) noun
1. Mutual consultation or deliberation.
2. Opinion; advice.
3. Deliberate purpose.
4. Good judgment; prudence.
5. A lawyer or lawyers engaged in a cause in court; an advocate.
—to keep one's own counsel To be reticent about one's opinions or affairs.
—v. ·seled or ·selled, ·sel·ing or ·sel·ling v.t.
1. To advise; give advice to.
2. To advise in favor of; recommend.
—v.i.
3. To take counsel; deliberate. ♦ Homophone: council. [<OF cunseil <L consilium <consulere deliberate] Synonyms (noun): admonition, advice, caution, dissuasion, hortation, persuasion, recommendation, suggestion, warning. Advice is an opinion suggesting or urging some course of action, on the ground of real or assumed superior knowledge. Counsel implies mutual conference. Advice may be unsought and even unwelcome; counsel is supposed to be desired. Yet the two words so far approach each other that one is said to seek advice from a lawyer, while a lawyer who is engaged to give advice or to act as an advocate in a legal proceeding is called the counsel of the person so employing him.