You have . . . petitioned all the gods for my
prosperity. --Shak.
A house of prayer and petition for thy people. --1
Macc. vii. 37.
This last petition heard of all her prayer.
--Dryden.
2. A formal written request addressed to an official person,
or to an organized body, having power to grant it;
specifically (Law), a supplication to government, in
either of its branches, for the granting of a particular
grace or right; -- in distinction from a memorial, which
calls certain facts to mind; also, the written document.
{Petition of right} (Law), a petition to obtain possession or
restitution of property, either real or personal, from the
Crown, which suggests such a title as controverts the
title of the Crown, grounded on facts disclosed in the
petition itself. --Mozley & W.
{The Petition of Right} (Eng. Hist.), the parliamentary
declaration of the rights of the people, assented to by
Charles I.