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Having relation to the grant or exercise faculty, or authority, privilege, license, or the like hence, optional; as, facultative enactments, or those which convey a faculty, or permission; the facultative referendum of Switzerland is one that is optional with the people and is necessary only when demanded by petition;…

Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation. The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise. Fuller. It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alte…

he mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony.

m an ax with the blade projecting, borne before the Roman magistrates as a badge of their authority.

The state of being a father; the character or authority of a father; paternity.

pecially, one unduly loved, trusted, and enriched with favors by a person of high rank or authority. Committing to a wicked favorite All public cares. Milton.

Respectful reverence for men of authority or worth. I will put my fear in their hearts. Jer. xxxii. 40. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Ps. xxxiv. 11. render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due . . . fear to whom fear. Rom. xiii. 7.

An authority for certain proceedings given by the Lord Chancellor's signature. Fiat money, irredeemable paper currency, not resting on a specie basis, but deriving its purchasing power from the declaratory fiat of the government issuing it.

An officer who has authority to direct in the extinguishing of fires, or to order what precautions shall be taken against fires; -- called also fireward.

To accept as authority; to adopt the opinions of; to obey; to yield to; to take as a rule of action; as, to follow good advice. Approve the best, and follow what I approve. Milton. Follow peace with all men. Heb. xii. 14. It is most agreeable to some men to follow their reason; and to others to follow their appetites.…

ude further claim of inheritance; to emancipate (as a with his own consent) from paternal authority. Blackstone.

ree from knots; clear stuff. -- Free thought, that which is thought independently of the authority of others. -- Free trade, commerce unrestricted by duties or tariff regulations. -- Free trader, one who believes in free trade. -- To make free with, to take liberties with; to help one's self to. [Colloq.] -- To sai…

One who plunders or pillages without the authority of national warfare; a member of a predatory band; a pillager; a buccaneer; a sea robber. Bacon.

One who speculates or forms opinions independently of the authority of others; esp., in the sphere or religion, one who forms opinions independently of the authority of revelation or of the church; an unbeliever; -- a term assumed by deists and skeptics in the eighteenth century. Atheist is an old-fashioned word: I'm a…

have caught the scent, and give tongue together. -- Full dress, the dress prescribed by authority or by etiquette to be worn on occasions of ceremony. -- Full hand (Poker), three of a kind and a pair. -- Full moon. (a) The moon with its whole disk illuminated, as when opposite to the sun. (b) The time when the moon…

To issue or send forth decrees or censures with the assumption of supreme authority; to thunder forth menaces.

The act of thundering forth threats or censures, as with authority.

To shoot; to dart like lightning; to fulminate; to utter with authority or vehemence. She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique. Tennyson.

p the mouth of, by thrusting sometimes in, so as to hinder speaking; hence, to silence by authority or by violence; not to allow freedom of speech to. Marvell. The time was not yet come when eloquence was to be gagged, and reason to be hood winked. Maccaulay.

thin the Roman Catholic Church in France, who (esp. in 1682) sought to restrict the papal authority in that country and increase the power of the national church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc.