\Di"et\, n. [F. di[`e]te, L. diaeta, fr. Gr. ? manner of
living.]
1. Course of living or nourishment; what is eaten and drunk
   habitually; food; victuals; fare. ``No inconvenient
   diet.'' --Milton.
2. A course of food selected with reference to a particular
   state of health; prescribed allowance of food; regimen
   prescribed.
         To fast like one that takes diet.     --Shak.
{Diet kitchen}, a kitchen in which diet is prepared for
   invalids; a charitable establishment that provides proper
   food for the sick poor.

\Di"et\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Dieted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Dieting}.]
1. To cause to take food; to feed. [R.] --Shak.
2. To cause to eat and drink sparingly, or by prescribed
   rules; to regulate medicinally the food of.
         She diets him with fasting every day. --Spenser.

\Di"et\, v. i.
1. To eat; to take one's meals. [Obs.]
         Let him . . . diet in such places, where there is
         good company of the nation, where he traveleth.
                                               --Bacon.
2. To eat according to prescribed rules; to ear sparingly;
   as, the doctor says he must diet.

\Di"et\, n. [F. di[`e]te, LL. dieta, diaeta, an assembly, a
day's journey; the same word as diet course of living, but
with the sense changed by L. dies day: cf. G. tag day? and
{Reichstag}.]
A legislative or administrative assembly in Germany, Poland,
and some other countries of Europe; a deliberative
convention; a council; as, the Diet of Worms, held in 1521.

\Di"et\, n. Specifically:
Any of various national or local assemblies; as,
(a) Occasionally, the Reichstag of the German Empire,
    Reichsrath of the Austrian Empire, the federal
    legislature of Switzerland, etc.
(b) The legislature of Denmark, Sweden, Japan, or Hungary.
(c) The state assembly or any of various local assemblies in
    the states of the German Empire, as the legislature
    (Landtag) of the kingdom of Prussia, and the Diet of the
    Circle (Kreistag) in its local government.
(d) The local legislature (Landtag) of an Austrian province.
(e) The federative assembly of the old Germanic Confederation
    (1815 -- 66).
(f) In the old German or Holy Roman Empire, the great formal
    assembly of counselors (the Imperial Diet or Reichstag)
    or a small, local, or informal assembly of a similar kind
    (the Court Diet, or Hoftag).
Note: The most celebrated Imperial Diets are the three
      following, all held under Charles V.:
{Diet of Worms}, 1521, the object of which was to check the
   Reformation and which condemned Luther as a heretic;
{D. of Spires, or Speyer}, 1529, which had the same object
   and issued an edict against the further dissemination of
   the new doctrines, against which edict Lutheran princes
   and deputies protested (hence Protestants):
{D. of Augsburg}, 1530, the object of which was the
   settlement of religious disputes, and at which the
   Augsburg Confession was presented but was denounced by the
   emperor, who put its adherents under the imperial ban.