All the chief priest and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, to put him to death.
Matt. xxvii. 1.

They all confess, therefore, in the working of that first cause, that counsel is used.
Hooker.

I like thy counsel; well hast thou advised.
Shak.

It was ill counsel had misled the girl.
Tennyson.

The counsel of the Lord standeth forever.
Ps. xxxiii. 11.

The counsels of the wicked are deceit.
Prov. xii. 5.

Thilke lord . . . to whom no counsel may be hid.
Gower.

The King found his counsel as refractory as his judges.
Macaulay.

* In some courts a distinction is observed between the attorney and the counsel in a cause, the former being employed in the management of the more mechanical parts of the suit, the latter in attending to the pleadings, managing the cause at the trial, and in applying the law to the exigencies of the case during the whole progress of the suit. In other courts the same person can exercise the powers of each. See Attorney. Kent.

In counsel, in secret. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To keep counsel, or To keep one's own counsel, to keep one's thoughts, purposes, etc., undisclosed.

The players can not keep counsel: they 'll tell all.
Shak.

Syn. -- Advice; consideration; consultation; purpose; scheme; opinion.

Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you
To leave this place.
Shak.

They who counsel war.
Milton.

Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb,
Counseled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth.
Milton.