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and in the United States usually, written jail.] Commission of general gaol delivery, an authority conferred upon judges and others included in it, for trying and delivering every prisoner in jail when the judges, upon their circuit, arrive at the place for holding court, and for discharging any whom the grand jury fa…

A writer of news, or an officer appointed to publish news by authority. Johnson.

Magistrates in Sparta, who with the ephori and kings, constituted the supreme civil authority.

eiving a return; to confer without compensation; to impart, as a possession; to grant, as authority or permission; to yield up or allow. For generous lords had rather give than pay. Young.

ctions or conduct of men, either by established laws or by arbitrary will; to regulate by authority. "Fit to govern and rule multitudes." Shak.

Capable of being governed, or subjected to authority; controllable; manageable; obedient. Locke.

Exercise of authority; control; government; arrangement. Chaucer. J. H. Newman.

A female governor; a woman invested with authority to control and direct; especially, one intrusted with the care and instruction of children, -- usually in their homes.

The act of governing; the exercise of authority; the administration of laws; control; direction; regulation; as, civil, church, or family government.

One who governs; especially, one who is invested with the supreme executive authority in a State; a chief ruler or magistrate; as, the governor of Pennsylvania. "The governor of the town." Shak.

They were originally licensed by the government, and endowed with special privileges and authority.

The quality or state of being hard, literally or figuratively. The habit of authority also had given his manners some peremptory hardness. Sir W. Scott.

olice force; the place from which orders or instructions are issued; hence, the center of authority or order. The brain, which is the headquarters, or office, of intelligence. Collier.

Authority or dignity; chief place.

The ethical theory which finds the explanation and authority of duty in its tendency to give pleasure.

Leadership; preponderant influence or authority; -- usually applied to the relation of a government or state to its neighbors or confederates. Lieber.

To subject to petty authority; -- said of a wife who thus treats her husband. Commonly used in the past participle (often adjectively).

pertinaciously refuses to believe one or more of the articles of faith "determined by the authority of the universal church." Addis & Arnold.

One who has high and controlling authority in sacred things; the chief of a sacred order; as, princely hierarchs. Milton.

The principles or authority of a hierarchy. The more dominant hierarchism of the West. Milman.