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To ascertain and declare, by a public process and decree, that a deceased person is one of "the blessed" and is to be reverenced as such, though not canonized.

. -- Canonical sins (Anc. Church.), those for which capital punishment or puplic penance decreed by the canon was inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.

The final process or decree (following beatifacation) by which the name of a deceased person is placed in the catalogue (canon) of saints and commended to perpetual veneration and invocation. Canonization of saints was not known to the Christian church titl toward the middle of the tenth century. Hoock.…

olic church, who denied the ecumenical character of the Vatican Council, and Rejected its decrees, esp. that concerning the infallibility of the pope, as contrary to the ancient Catholic faith.

. The judges shall certify their opinion to the chancellor, and upon such certificate the decree is usually founded. Blackstone. Certified check, A bank check, the validity of which is certified by the bank on which it is drawn.

ondemning; containing or imposing condemnation or censure; as, a condemnatory sentence or decree.

Fated or decreed with something else. [R.] A. Tucker.

-- Continental system (Hist.), the blockade of Great Britain ordered by Napoleon by the decree of Berlin, Nov. 21, 1806; the object being to strike a blow at the maritime and commercial supremacy of Great Britain, by cutting her off from all intercourse with the continent of Europe.

ckade aiming to exclude England from commerce with the Continent instituted by the Berlin decree, which Napoleon I. issued from Berlin Nov. 21, 1806, declaring the British Isles to be in a state of blockade, and British subjects, property, and merchandise subject to capture, and excluding British ships from all parts o…

rson to another. [He] found the conveyances in law to be so firm, that in justice he must decree the land to the earl. Clarendon.

To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigor. [Obs.] Heaven's stern decree, With many an ill, hath numbed and deaded me. Chapman.

To decree; to adjudge.

A decree or sentence of a court. Stormonth.

Appertaining to a decree; containing a decree; as, a decretal epistle. Ayliffe.

A decree. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Having the force of a decree; determining. The will of God is either decretive or perceptive. Bates.

In a decretory or definitive manner; by decree.

Established by a decree; definitive; settled. The decretory rigors of a condemning sentence. South.

To divest or deprive of national character or rights. Bonaparte's decree denationalizes, as he calls it, all ships that have touched at a British port. Cobbett. An expatriated, denationalized race. G. Eliot.

apart by design for a future use or purpose; to fix, as by destiny or by an authoritative decree; to doom; to ordain or preordain; to appoint; -- often with the remoter object preceded by to or for. We are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe. Milton. Till the loathsome opposite Of all my heart had destined,…