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Legal or rightful power; a right to command or to act; power exercised buy a person in virtue of his office or trust; dominion; jurisdiction; authorization; as, the authority of a prince over subjects, and of parents over children; the authority of a court. Thus can the demigod, Authority, Make us pay down for our offe…

The act of giving authority or legal power; establishment by authority; sanction or warrant. The authorization of laws. Motley. A special authorization from the chief. Merivale.

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

In fire-alarm telegraphy, a system so arranged that when one alarm is being transmitted, no other alarm, sent in from another point, will be transmitted until after the first alarm has been disposed of.

A positive statement of facts; an allegation; an offer to justify or prove what is alleged.

ng assent, or an affirmative answer to a question. It is much used in viva voce voting in legislative bodies, etc.

s. (B.A. or A.B.), the first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges.

ken the first or lowest degree in the liberal arts, or in some branch of science, at a college or university; as, a bachelor of arts.

To write upon the back of; as, to back a letter; to indorse; as, to back a note or legal document.

A method of tripping by getting the leg back of the opponent's heel on the outside and pulling forward while pushing his body back; a throw made in this way. -- v. t.

ped of the genus Meles or of an allied genus. It is a burrowing animal, with short, thick legs, and long claws on the fore feet. One species (M. vulgaris), called also brock, inhabits the north of Europe and Asia; another species (Taxidea Americana or Labradorica) inhabits the northern parts of North America. See Teled…

Playful raillery; banter. "He . . . indulged himself only in an elegant badinage." Warburton.

One of the thoracic legs of Arthropods.

Having the right or privilege of being admitted to bail, upon bond with sureties; -- used of persons. "He's bailable, I'm sure." Ford.

Nakedly; without reserve; inelegantly.

A toll paid for the privilege of taking up ballast in a port or harbor.

elinquent for offending against a ban; as, a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes. Ban of the empire (German Hist.), an imperial interdict by which political rights and privileges, as those of a prince, city, or district, were taken away.

Two strips of linen hanging from the neck in front as part of a clerical, legal, or academic dress.

Bent; crooked; curved laterally, esp. with the convex side outward; as, a bandy leg.

Being a bankrupt or in a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay, or legally discharged from paying, one's debts; as, a bankrupt merchant.