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To clothe with authority, warrant, or legal power; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle a boundary.

ern. -- To back up, to support; to sustain; as, to back up one's friends. -- To back a warrant (Law), is for a justice of the peace, in the county where the warrant is to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender. -- To back water (Naut.), to reverse the action of…

To censure or revile the absent. They are arrant knaves, and will backbite. Shak.

A warrant or commission given to a pilot, authorizing him to pilot vessels in certain waters. Branches of a bridle, two pieces of bent iron, which bear the bit, the cross chains, and the curb. -- Branch herring. See Alewife. -- Root and branch , totally, wholly.

A warrant from the government, granting a privilege, title, or dignity. [French usage].

To stamp with the broad seal; to make sure; to guarantee or warrant. [Obs.] Thy presence broadseals our delights for pure. B. Jonson.

An instrument formerly used to punish and correct arrant scolds; -- called also a ducking stool, or trebucket. Blacktone.

One who prates much in his own favor, and makes unwarrantable pretensions; a quack; an impostor; an empiric; a mountebank.

A customhouse seal; a certified document given to a shopper as a warrant that his goods have been duly enstered and have paid duty.

A formal written warrant or authority, granting certain powers or privileges and authorizing or commanding the performance of certain duties. Let him see our commission. Shak.

Of pertaining to, or conferring, a commission; conferred by a commission or warrant. [R.] Delegate or commissionary authority. Bp. Hall.

A person who has a commission or warrant to perform some office, or execute some bussiness, for the goverment, corporation, or person employing him; as, a commissioner to take affidavits or to adjust claims. To another adress which requisted that a commission might be sent to examine into the state of things in Ireland…

A warrant or order for the imprisonment of a person; -- more frequently termed a mittimus.

of the peace having power as a conservator of the public peace, and bound to exeute the warrants of judicial offiers. Bouvier.

The act of contravening; opposition; obstruction; transgression; violation. Warrants in contravention of the acts of Parliament. Macaulay. In contravention of all his marriage stipulations. Motley.

omething; false; spurious; deceitful; hypocritical; as, a counterfeit philanthropist. "An arrant counterfeit rascal." Shak.

, designed to be cut off and presented for payment when the interest is due; an interest warrant.

displeasing, by open expression, as by denuciation, hissing, hooting, etc. You are not so arrant a critic as to damn them [the works of modern poets] . . . without hearing. Pope. Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer. Pope.

One who meanly shrinks from danger; an arrant coward; a poltroon. You are all recreants and dashtards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility. Shak.

h throe, the spasm of death. -- Death token, the signal of approaching death. -- Death warrant. (a) (Law) An order from the proper authority for the execution of a criminal. (b) That which puts an end to expectation, hope, or joy. -- Death wound. (a) A fatal wound or injury. (b) (Naut.) The springing of a fatal leak…